RECOLLECTIONS 

OK 

GROVER CLEVELAND 



RECOLLECTIONS 



^ { 

•a U 



OF 



GROVER CLEVELAND 



BY 



GEORGE F. PARKER, A.M., LL.D. 



Yet remember all 
He spoke among you, and the man who spoke; 
Who never sold the truth to serve the hour, 
Nor paltered with Eternal God for power; 
Who let the turbid streams of rumour flow 
Through either babbling world of high and low; 
Whose life was work, whose language rife 
With rugged maxims hewn from life. 

Tennyson. 






NEW YORK 
THE CENTURY CO. 

1909 






'■\ 



Copyright, 1909, by 
The Century Co. 

Copyright, 1909, by 

George F. Parker 

Copyright, 1909. by 

The S. S. McClure Company 

Published October, igog 



248 5 05 



THE DE VINNE PRESS 



CONTENTS 



rAGS 



Preface xv 

Introduction" 3 

Collection of writings and speeches— Biographical sketch- 
Writing of recollections — How materials were gathered — Let- 
ter from Mr. Cleveland— Accuracy, how secured— Lack of gen- 
eral historical and biographical materials— Difficulty of public 
men supplying these— Estimate of Mr. Cleveland's character- 
Not a portrait, but studies. 

CHAPTER I 
Ancestry — Early Life 13 

Mr. Cleveland's lack of interest in family history— First of the 
name on the American continent— Genealogical poem by the 
Rev. Aaron Cleveland— Marriage of William Cleveland- 
Birth of Richard Falley Cleveland— Enters the ministry- 
Pastorates in Caldwell, New Jersey, Fayetteville, Clinton, and 
Holland Patent, New York— Birth of Grover Cleveland— Mr. 
Cleveland's tribute to his father— Employment of the brothers 
in the Blind Asylum, New York— Recollections of Miss Fanny 
J. Crosby. 

CHAPTER n 
Professional Career 28 

Law studies- Habits of life in Buflfalo— Ideas on education — 
Admission to the bar — Assistant District Attorney of Erie 
Count} — Family representatives in the army— Early party affi- 
liations—Defeated for District Attornej — Elected Sheriff of 
Erie County— Qualities as a lawyer described \)y Wilson S. 
Bissell. 

CHAPTER HI 
Mayor of Buffalo— Candidate for Governor ... 42 

Condition of city politics— Nominated and elected Mayor — In- 
dependent attitude in dealing with City Council— Close atten- 
tion to public business — Frequency of vetoes and their positive 
character — Suggested for gubernatorial nomination — Asked to 
meet Daniel Manning— Letter from Edgar K. Apgar— Mr. 
Cleveland's reply— Visits State Convention at Syracuse— Letter 
of acceptance — Opinion about corporations — Remarkable cam- 
paign that followed— Elected Governor by an unprecedented 
majorit}'. 



vi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IV 

FAGB 

Governor of New York— Presidential Election . . 56 

Inauguration as Governor— Severe test to w^hich a new official 
is subjected — First annual message and his difficulties explained 
— Public questions discussed— Still the master of vetoes— Five- 
Cent Fare Bill — Appointments, labor, and first Railroad Com- 
mission—Second annual message— Working of Civil Service 
Reform Law— State business under better control — Discussed 
as candidate for President— Nomination by National Conven- 
tion at Chicago— Letter of acceptance, conduct of campaign, 
and election— National Civil Service and the silver question. 



CHAPTER V 
Organizing the Executive Departments • • • • 73 

Inauguration as President— Delivery of inaugural address — 
Choice of advisers — Private secretary, Daniel S. Lamont — 
Daniel Manning — William C. Whitney — Three men chosen 
from the Senate for the Cabinet : Thomas F. Bayard, Augustus 
IT. Garland, L. Q. C. Lamar- William F. Vilas- William C 
Hndicott— Dealing with political managers. 



CHAPTER VI 
The Work of Administration 83 

Members of Cabinet not mere clerks— Some foreign complica- 
tions—Mexico—Austria—England—Extradition treaty— Peril 
in Treasury— How the surplus was dealt with— Decline in cost 
of collecting revenue— Reconstruction of the navy— Mr. Whit- 
ney's methods and genius— Management of the War Depart- 
ment—Care in Department of Justice— Growth of the Post 
Office — Interior Department and its management— Public land 
policy — Attention to the Indian problem — Department of Agri- 
culture taken seriously— Contest with the Senate— Attitude on 
pensions — Extension of Civil Service Reform Law— Tariff re- 
form in earlier messages— The message of 1887— Character of 
administration. 



CHAPTER VII 
The Campaign of 1888 106 

The writer called to Washington— Preparation of Campaign 
Text-Book in the White House— Credentials-Working oppo- 
site the President's room — Discovering his working habits— 
The old-fashioned public reception— Mr. Cleveland's popularity 
with subordinates— Working with Cabinet officers at night- 
Methods of dealing with pardon cases— First meeting with 
President — .Approves of matter in the Text-Book— Opinion of 
the plan adopted. 



CONTENTS vii 

CHAPTER VIII 

PAGE 

The Presidential Interim . 122 

National headquarters— Visit to Washington— Mr. Cleveland in 
New York — Preparation for Boston speecii — I'irst knowledge 
of methods of writing— Difficulties in distribution — Opening 
gun for campaign of 1892— Disinclination to run again and 
reasons given — Renomination inevitable — Demands for 
speeches and letters — Organization without plan or money — 
"Old Roman" banquet at Columbus — Reform Club banquet — 
Looking for a Vice-President— Not consciously a candidate — 
New York a political Mecca — A queer campaign — How it 
gathered momentum — Class of men interested in it— Few ma- 
chine politicians — Course of events in California. 

CHAPTER IX 
Preparation for 1892 144 

Democratic State Convention in New York — Address at Mich- 
igan State Universit}' — Contesting delegation chosen at Sara- 
toga — Two newspaper men taken into confidence — Plans adopted 
for dealing with newspapers— William C. Whitney's position — 
His interview in favor of Mr. Cleveland's nomination — His 
return from Europe— Energy and methods of work — Mr. Whit- 
ney assumes command— Conference at his house— Arrange- 
ments made for the convention — Meeting of conference in 
Chicago— Mr. Whitney's methods there— Anecdote of Whitney 
— Bourke Cockran's speech. 

CHAPTER X 
CaxMpaign Management 166 

Mr. Cleveland as a politician — The usual management difficul- 
ties — Notification response, no other speech — Stevenson's letter 
of acceptance— Election night- Satisfaction at end of cam- 
paign—President without obligations. 

CHAPTER XI 
Making the Second Cabinet 174 

New dealings with the newspapers— Mr. Cleveland's opinion of 
John G. Carlisle — Colonel Lamont — Hoke Smith — Hilary A. 
Herbert— Richard Olney— Secretary of State: Walter Q. 
Gresham — Three tenders of Agricultural Department — Kind 
of men desired for Cabinet — Tribute of John P. Irish — Wil- 
liam L. Wilson of West Virginia— Public opinion of new 
Cabinet. 

CHAPTER XII 
Some Foreign Conditions 187 

The writer appointed Consul to Birmingham— Pressure for 
patronage— Diplomatic relations with England— Letter from 



PAGE 



viil CONTENTS 

Mr. Bayard — Effect in England of Venezuelan message- 
Celebrating Shakespeare's birthday— Letter from Mr. Cleve- 
land—Attitude towards foreign relations— His opinion of 
Secretary 01ne> — Preparation of message— Hoke Smith's esti- 
mate of Mr. Cleveland's position. 

CHAPTER XIII 
Later Campaigns— Bryan and Bryanism .... 202 

Renewal of the writer's relations with Mr. Cleveland— His 
refusal to consider suggested renomination— Work of prelim- 
inary nomination canvass— Correspondence— Interest in Judge 
Parker's campaign— The Populist movement— High estimate 
of the Democratic party— Attitude of the silver Democrats- 
Letter showing deep feeling— Continued activity of the silver 
advocates — Distrust of Bryan— Convinced that latter would 
not be nominated in 1908— Last expressions of opinion on pub- 
lic questions- Letter to Mr. E. Prentiss Bailey— Sorrow over 
party division and impotence. 

CHAPTER XIV 
The Insurance Episode 223 

Disinclination to take post— Mr. Rvan's plan for bringing this 
about— Letter to Mr. Cleveland— His repl> — Chairman of the 
Board of Trustees— Difficult work at early meetings— Care 
exercised in choosing directors— Address to policv-holders— 
Collecting ballots — Satisfaction with the work— Opinion of Mr. 
Ryan— Fortunate excursion into public life. 

CHAPTER XV 
Rivals— Predecessors, AND Successors 242 

Alonzo B. Cornell- Charles J. Folger- James G. Blaine- 
Chester A. Arthur-Benjamin Harrison-William McKinley- 
Iheodore Roosevelt. 



CHAPTER XVI 
Civil Service Reform 

Jirn'*^1 *"^^''^^t in questions- Suggestion made by Professor 
VVillard Fiske through David B. Hill-Careful attention to pub- 
lic busmess- Valentine P. Snyder's expcrience-His criticism 
ot some Reform Associations-A new White House stenog- 
rapher-First appearance of George B. Cortelvou-Mr Cleve- 
land s admiration for him— Tribute to the merit system. 

CHAPTER XVII 
Public Patronage 

Wide range of opinion consulted-Did not stand upon position 
or dipity- Refusal to use offices for punishment of opponents 
-l-nendship and patronage- Pride in his appointments- 
Character of men put into office-Less public interest in sec- 
ond administration— How appointees became friends 



252 



265 



CONTENTS ix 

CHAPTER XVIII 

PAi.E 

Economic Questions 285 

Their study taken up after first term— Special attention to early 
statesmen — Attracted to Mr. Tilden — Strong friendship for 
Joseph E. McDonahl — Resentment of weakness in public men — 
Opinion of John Sherman — Attention to general taxation — 
Not specially interested in its incidence— Relations to railroad 
control— Starting the Interstate Commerce Commission. 

CHAPTER XIX 
What a Closed Room Revealed 301 

Examining miscellaneous articles — Little interest in his own 
writings — One or two unique documents — Letter from the 
King of Samoa— Revelation of human nature. 



CHAPTER XX 
The South 307 

Intense interest in conditions in the South — Choosing Cabinet 
members from that section — Danger in interfering with balance 
in the Senate— The question of benefits forgot— Feeling about 
military branches— Pain given by changed attitude— Mani- 
fested in letters and conversation— Pleasure experienced by 
changes. 

CHAPTER XXI 
Some Opinions of Men 317 

Thomas F. Bayard— Mr. Bayard's opinion of Mr. Cleveland— 
Correspondence— J. Pierpont Morgan — James J. Hill — George 
Gray— Patrick A. Collins— Party position and associations — 
Attachment to his early political faith — Samuel J. Tilden: his 
knowledge of financial conditions — Preparation of the Warner 
letter on silver — David B. Hill — Hill's conclusions on his own 
ambitions— William E. Russell— John E. Russell. 



CHAPTER XXII 
Party Position and Associations 334 

How he chose his party — Passed through novitiate in practical 
politics — Attachment to principles — Set forth in veto of Texas 
Seed Bill — Pride in large independence shown by his party — Sam- 
uel J. Tilden and Mr. Cleveland — Represented same principles 
and policies — Reading of first presidential letter of acceptance — 
The Warner letter on the silver question — Prepared by Manton 
Marble at suggestion of Mr. Tilden — Opinion of Tilden — David 
B. Hill and the campaign of 1888 — Mr. Cleveland's expressed 
opinion — Mr. Hill's conclusions — William E. Russell and his 
relations to the larger politics. 



X CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XXIII 

PAGE 

Style in Writing and Speech 347 

Deficiencies in earlv training keenly felt— Method of preparing 
speeches or messages— Unwearied industry— Dependence upon 
his own efforts- Ease and fun in private letters — Correctmg 
his earlier speeches— Opinion of his own style— Easy manner 
in conversation. 

CHAPTER XXIV 
Public Opinion— Legislation— Courts 359 

Disinclination to adjust himself to newspapers— Refusal to re- 
sort to usual methods- Appreciation of articles about himself— 
Not a manager of legislative bodies— High belief in judiciary 
and resentment of official criticisms— Care in appointing judges 
—The Chief-Justiceship. 

CHAPTER XXV 
Friendships— Religion 3^9 

Did not mix politics with friendship— Feeling in Buffalo— En- 
larging circle of friendship in Washington— Appreciation of 
friends— Relations with Senators and Representatives— With 
legal associates and literary men — Correspondence with busi- 
ness men — Refusal to court newspaper editors— Capacity for 
friendship— His friendships largely political— Letters from 
Whitney and Vilas— Ingrained religious convictions — Opinion 
of the Bible— Believed ours a Christian nation— Interest in the 
missionary cause— Opposition to sensational preachers. 

CHAPTER XXVI 
Some Contributed Estimates 386 

John P. Irish: Return of the battle-flags— Insight— Tilden's 
opinion— Strength of policy. 

William U. Hensel : At a barbecue— Manning and Cleveland- 
Curious gifts — His capacious memory — Pardons. 
Colonel Hilary A. Herbert : Reconstruction of the Navy — 
William C. Whitney's work— The gold standard— An amusing 
illustration— Relations with Spain. 

George B. Cortelyou : Mr. Cleveland's career remarkable in 
many ways— Earliest relations with him — Methods of handling 
his official correspondence— Home life and character as a 
friend — Conscientiousness. 



Appendix I. Chronology 407 

Appendix II. Bibliography 409 

Index . . 411 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Grover Cleveland. Photog^raviire Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

Parents of Grover Cleveland 14 

The Manse, at Caldwell, New Jersey. Birthplace of Grover 

Cleveland 20 

Daniel Manning: 52 

William C. Whitney and his wife, Flora Payne Whitney . 76 

William Freeman Vilas 80 

Frances Folsom 100 

Colonel Daniel S. Lamont 108 

Mr. Cleveland at his desk 132 

William L. Wilson 158 

E. C. Benedict 168 

John Griffin Carlisle 174 

J. Sterling Morton 178 

Facsimile of a letter written to the president of the Birming"- 

ham Dramatic and Literary Club 194 



FACING PAGE 



xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Richard Olney ig8 

Grover Cleveland, Morgan J. O'Brien, and George West- 

inghouse , 228 

Chester A. Arthur 246 

William McKinley 248 

George B. Cortelyou 260 

Cleveland's second Cabinet 276 

Samuel J.Tilden 288 

Hilary A. Herbert of Alabama 312 

Thomas F. Bayard 318 

Patrick A. Collins 328 

John E. Russell 332 

William E. Russell 344 

Dr. Joseph D. Bryant 370 

J. Jefferson 382 

Westland, the Cleveland home at Princeton 388 

Grover Cleveland and his family at their home in Princeton, 

New Jersey 396 

Mr. Cleveland in academic dress 402 



PREFACE 

I HAVE explained the principles and policies that have 
guided me in writing this book. But no task like this 
can be executed without incurring agreeable obligations 
to many persons. 

The Executors of the estate have generously given 
me 'permission to print letters written by Mr. Cleveland, 
and I have received useful suggestions from his sisters, 
Mrs. S. C. Yeomans and Miss Rose Elizabeth Cleve- 
land. 

I owe especial thanks, to Colonel John P. Irish of Cali- 
fornia; ex- Attorney-General William U. Hensel of 
Pennsylvania; Colonel Hilary A. Herbert of -Washing- 
ton, D. C. ; ex-Secretary George B. Cortelyou of New 
York; Hon. Alton B. Parker of New York; and Mr. 
Herbert P. Bissell of Buffalo. They have all sent me 
useful contributions to history. 

I have limited myself, in general, to letters written 
by Mr. Cleveland to me, but, during the course of pre- 
paration, a few others, confirming personal impressions 
and reports of conversations, have come from Messrs. 
Everett P. Wheeler of New York, Kope Elias of North 
Carolina, Thomas Spratt of Plattsburg, and E. Prentiss 
Bailey, editor of the Utica Observer, to all of whom my 



XIV 



PREFACE 



thanks are due. Mrs. William B. Hilles has permitted 
me to use four letters written by her father, the late 
Thomas F. Bayard, while our Ambassador in England. 

Useful suggestions have been made by Dr. Joseph 
D. Bryant, ex-Secretary Charles S. Fairchild, Colonel 
John J. McCook, and Judge George Gray ; Messrs. E. C. 
Benedict, Morgan J. O'Brien, Francis Lynde Stetson, 
Frederic C. Penfield, Thomas F. Meehan, and Mrs. 
Wilson S. Bissell and Mrs. John E. Russell. 

Colonel Samuel R. Honey, lately of Rhode Island, 
now living in England; ex- Attorney-General L. T. 
Michener of Washington; Colonel Robert Grier Monroe 
of New York; and Messrs. William F. Harrity, for- 
merly Chairman of the Democratic National Commit- 
tee, John J. Lentz of Columbus, Ohio, William Duff 
Haynie of Chicago, Josiah Quincy, Nathan Matthews, 
and Robert Lincoln O'Brien of Boston, have furnished 
information or verified references and have thus made 
me their debtor. 

Nor can I overlook the encouragement which has 
come from many strangers who, during the progress of 
partial serial publication, have written me from every 
part of the country. My only regret is that, owing to 
the personal character of the book, it has not always 
been possible to use the information which they have 
furnished or to adopt their suggestions. 

Although one side of a colloquy cannot be given in 
exact language, the substance of conversations has been 
reported with scrupulous fidelity. Whatever faults or 
merits any of these may have, no one else can be held 



PREFACE XV 

even to the smallest responsibility cither for them, or for 
the opinions expressed, or the conclusions reached. 

The hope is indulged that the Chronology may afford 
the reader a bird's-eye view of a life; that the brief 
Bibliography may induce readers to go further ; that the 
unusually full Table of Contents may be a useful guide ; 
and that the Index may be found a real aid. 



George F. Parker. 



Winnisook Club, 

Slide Mountain, New York, 

September 8, 1909. 



RECOLLECTIONS OF 
GROVER CLEVELAND 



RECOLLECTIONS OF 
GROVER CLEVELAND 



INTRODUCTION 



After it became evident, in 1891, that nothing could 
prevent the nomination of Mr. Cleveland, I began to 
collect his writings and speeches. As it was to be a 
campaign for a personality, as much biographical mate- 
rial as possible ought to be available. Nearly every- 
thing dealing in a literary way with him, or his quick rise 
into national 'prominence, had been tentative, hurried, 
incomplete, and had failed fairly to represent either his 
attainments or his ability. Little material had been 
gathered which revealed the man as he really was, or 
showed what he had done, or how he had gone about it. 
In making my compilation, Mr. Cleveland gave every 
assistance in his power. He detected errors, suggested 
correct readings, and read proofs with his usual care- 
thus fairly completing his public utterances up to that 
time. The volume contained no biography and no opin- 
ions or judgments of the compiler, other than a critical 
introduction or appreciation. 



4 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

In August, 1892, after the Presidential campaign was 
well under way, it was represented to Mr. Cleveland 
that a comprehensive biography was needed. Although 
no part of my plans, I undertook it. Fortunately for the 
emergency, I had the material ready at hand — collected, 
in the main, from the lips of the subject himself. It in- 
cluded elaborate notes of conversations and incidents, 
memoranda, letters, and documents. The book was 
written in the overtime of eleven days, and issued in 
newspaper and book form some six weeks before the 
election. Its defects were obvious: but it did condense 
the available facts into small compass. It drew ma- 
terials and inspiration from its subject, had been pre- 
pared at his request, and was published with his co- 
operation and oversight. 



II 

I THOUGHT then, and for nearly sixteen years after- 
ward, that I had told my story, and prolonged absence 
seemed to confirm this opinion. But my plans were 
changed and, without seeking, I was again thrown into 
close association with Mr. Cleveland. It was a new case 
of propinquity. 

From the beginning, the note-taking habit — part of 
the equipment of the old-fashioned editor — has stood me 
in good stead when the need came ; for, in dealing with 
Mr. Cleveland, as with other men or events, it had led me 
to record facts or traits, estimates of men, happenings, 
and opinions — many of them unconventional, but illum- 
inating. He would certainly be a stupid man who, in 
the conferences incident to the discussion of the details 
of more than half a hundred addresses, saying nothing 



GROVER CLEVELAND 5 

of an incalculable number of other interviews, did not 
obtain some insight into the mind of his neighbor. 

It is inevitable that these recollections should deal 
mainly, though not wholly, with public questions and 
public men. His life, attention, and interests were 
closely linked with politics in the myriad forms it takes in 
this country. But, as a progressive man, he kept in 
touch with current thought, especially with new figures 
in it, and discussed in private a range of questions not 
touched upon in public. These would find a place in 
both note and memory, and in this way I gathered many 
interesting expressions of a man whose mind grew, day 
by day, to the end. 

To a writer who is free from the thought or necessity 
for making copy, opinions, thus expressed and many 
times repeated, noted again and again in all their varia- 
tions, became almost personified. There may not be 
agreement with them: but such association afifords 
many opportunities. When one knows and believes in 
the man, his philosophy becomes absorbing. 



Ill 

In 1893— after my long absence from the country was 
assured — I pressed upon three personal friends, already 
chosen for the Cabinet, the importance, for the truth of 
history, of having inside views of the administration, 
from beginning to end. The suggestion was well re- 
ceived, and I supposed, until many years later, that 
Daniel S. Lamont, Wilson S. Bissell, and Hoke Smith 
had collected and collated such a record. But the exac- 
tions of public life would have made it difficult even for 
practised writers, accustomed by training and habit to 



6 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

take notes of documents, discussions, conferences, in- 
structions, or conversations. The effect is that, in this 
case, as in so many others, the real material of his- 
tory has been lost. 

In 1906 a little group of friends had worked out a 
plan which made provision for gathering, from Mr. 
Cleveland's still living associates and friends, estimates, 
in the form of opinions, and facts about his two terms 
as President. The materials were to be locked up for 
use until the time should come for telling the story of 
his life and service. Mr. Cleveland set no store by such 
things so long as they concerned him. More by acci- 
dent than design, after his retirement, he wrote the il- 
luminating story of some of the chief events of his two 
administrations as President for use as lectures or news- 
paper articles. When, therefore, he discouraged the 
proposed method, the plans were, in the necessity of 
things, dropped. 

Nearly eighteen months later I was surprised to re- 
ceive the following letter: 

Princeton, October 7, 1907. 
My dear Mr. Parker: 

I have lately had a letter from Henry L. Nelson, whom you 
know well — now a professor in Williams College — informing 
me that he has a commission from the North American Review 
to write something about me and asking if I can furnish any 
material in his aid outside of the State Papers and "Presi- 
dential Problems" which he already has. 

You know how thoroughly incompetent I am in this matter 
and how little I know about myself: but I confess to a desire 
that, at some time, there should be written, by some one, some 
things that will present the personal traits and disposition that 
have given direction to my public, as well as my personal, con- 
duct. 

I have written to Professor Nelson telling him of the book 



GROVER CLEVELAND 7 

of speeches and letters you compiled in 1892 and saying that 
of all men yon would be the best to consult. If he applies to 
you I shall greatly appreciate any effort you may make in aid 
of the presentability of what he intends to write. 

Sincerely yours, 

Grover Cleveland. 
George F. Parker, 

120 Broadway, New York. 



IV 

Not long after, I went to Princeton and spent some 
hours with Mr. Cleveland discussing many questions— 
among them, that of bringing his writings and speeches 
up to date. For the first time in our association— or 
with any one else, so far as I know— he willingly con- 
sented that I should again take up this work, not with a 
view to immediate publication, but for the purpose of 
having them ready for future use. When it was dis- 
covered that some instalments were unattainable at the 
ofifice of the newspapers in which they had been printed, 
he supplied the missing numbers and showed some of 
the interest in this question that had been felt all along 
by his friends. 

Lack of time, and stress of employments remote from 
writing, had driven from my mind any idea of con- 
tributing further to the elucidation of Mr. Cleveland's 
career. After finishing the sketch of 1892, I had writ- 
ten no more about him. But after his death the memo- 
ries of twenty years came thronging back as if revealed 
in a vision. It seemed to me that I could tell a story 
which might be valuable to my countrymen as an esti- 
mate of a man known, in his nobleness and greatness, 
only to a few people. 



8 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Upon my return to town I took counsel with friends 
of my own and Mr. Cleveland, who insisted that it was a 
duty to pay this homage to his memory. I then began 
a search for the materials. In dozens of drawers, pigeon- 
holes, boxes, and letter files, were documents, letters, 
notes of conversations, or minutes of organizations of 
which I had been secretary. More than a thousand care- 
fully preserved letters, written by leading men in forty 
States, either to me or to Mr. Cleveland— during the 
prenomination canvass of 1 889-1 892— were taken from 
their dusty hiding-places. 

With these aids the past lived anew. I found myself 
again in the atmosphere of campaign text-books; or in 
national conventions or committees, surrounded either 
by able statesmen or by pushing, eager politicians; or 
behind the scenes with the master mind of all. Thence- 
forth, business, rest, or interest in the things about me 
had to wait. I wrote on and on until the prescribed 
limits of two or three magazine articles had grown into 
the book here presented. 



If these random recollections wandering at will from 
topic to topic — and thus remote from formal biography 
— have any value, it is due to the fact that they are 
personal and intimate. While not based upon the report 
of others, but resting upon knowledge, I have not relied 
upon memory for a fact, opinion, inference, or report 
of conversations, unless it was verified by note, memo- 
randum, document, letter, or minute, or was checked by 
others. Before printing a line or being approached by 
an editor or publisher, the manuscript was submitted to 
those best qualified to know and judge, and in the course 



GROVER CLEVELAND 9 

of partial serial publication, suggestion from any quali- 
fied critic has been welcomed. 

It has been written with high reverence and a strong 
sense of responsibility. I have tried, as honestly as any 
man could, to carry out the wish expressed in the quoted 
Princeton letter: "that, at some time, there should be 
written, by some one, some things that will present the 
personal traits and disposition that have given direction 
to my public, as well as my personal, conduct." 



VI 

Few literary deficiencies of our time and country are 
more apparent than the absence of satisfactory studies 
of our commanding public men. Our people get little 
from books to aid them in learning or preserving the 
truth about their leaders, or in promoting that dignity 
of history without which a nation soon loses its sense 
of perspective. 

Under existing conditions the difficulties are almost 
insuperable. The brevity of tenure in public life; par- 
tizan activity on lines which repress originality, if not 
thought itself; the attention given to whimsical and 
evanescent speech and writing; the flippancy of public 
comment and criticism ; the practical disappearance of 
the letter as a form of literature, and along with it, of 
diaries and note-books ; the frequent indifference of our 
public men to the claims of history; the ruinous tidal 
waves of sentimentalism which, now and again, sweep 
over our national life; and the truculent assertion of a 
false and belittling equality — all tend to reduce political 
biography to its lowest terms. 

This absence of inemoires pour servir makes it ex- 



lo RECOLLECTIONS OF 

tremely difficult for even the best-equipped historian or 
biographer to write, with fairness and with a decent re- 
gard for Hterary finish, of our public men. They are 
seldom surrounded officially by those endowed both with 
observation and literary gifts: perhaps worst of all, 
few contributions are made by women— whose letters, 
gossip, estimates, and opinions, have, in other times and 
countries and even in our own earlier days, enlivened 
and illustrated history, and, in a special way, biography : 
the record of human nature. 



VII 

Our public men are themselves too busy to leave other 
than an official record; to do more than see swarms 
of reporters— each on the lookout for his little catch- 
word — in order to discuss some temporary, snapshot 
phase of patronage or dispute; to defend themselves 
from idle or vicious criticism; or to forecast some cut- 
and-dried policy. While in office, with its worries and 
its wearing, never-ending responsibilities, they have no 
time or strength, even if so inclined, to lay, firmly and 
sensibly, the foundations for a sane presentation of their 
cases in the court of history ; to save themselves from a 
return into obscurity; or to resent or correct hideous 
injustice. Out of office, the tide sweeps over them and, 
at its ebb, generally leaves them high and dry, bereft 
alike of power and of interest for a mercurial public. 

In some instances, when the delayed memoir or auto- 
biography finally reaches the world — often in the form 
of a subscription book with its few thousands of un- 
critical gudgeons — our once conspicuous public man has 
passed into the condition of neglect which encourages 



GROVER CLEVELAND ii 

and emphasizes, in each new generation, the conclusion 
that the past is nothing and that the present, with its 
noisy buzzing insects of the hour, is all that the world 
holds. In this somewhat disjointed study, I have sought, 
within the limits of ability and opportunity, to reveal 
the character of the man, as I saw it, and also to demon- 
strate that, when afforded the necessary scope, the quali- 
ties distinctive of our old-time Americanism remain as 
potent and encouraging as ever. 



VIII 

Other than the man under consideration, we cannot 
expect to find, anywhere in modern life, a finer product 
of democracy at its best estate. Earnest, honest, a lover 
of mercy, charitable in disposition and manner, as free 
as men may be from resentments, the country has not 
yet realized the blessing vouchsafed it in finding for high 
place a man with will, capacity, and courage— one who 
could and would tell the truth, without concealment or 
abatement. 

/The whole of Mr. Cleveland's public life was a sacri- 
hce for the public good. Whether in or out of it, he 
stood for the dignity of his great office, not because it 
was his own, but for the better reason that he repre- 
sented his country before the world. He did not have 
to study for the part: it was a dignity inherent in the 
gentleman. 

He had the quality now somewhat unfashionable: 
reticence. He never deemed it necessary to exhibit 
every emotion : to cry every thought or notion from the 
housetops. He would no more surrender to the pass- 



12 GROVER CLEVELAND 

ing whim of intimates, or listen to their protests, than 
he would when dealing with public clamor. 

Welcoming the new when also true, he preserved old 
ideals and realities. He made the reform of abuses 
in public life a business: not a profession. He loved 
humanity in all its various forms : and sympathized 
with its joys and sorrows ; he hated hypocrites, shams, 
Pharisees, pretenders, and liars: he despised none but 
incompetents and toadies. The outstanding points in 
his character were: sturdy manliness, unyielding, in- 
herent honesty of life and opinion, and the virility found 
only in real men. While the need for these qualities 
remains, his memory ought to furnish both example and 
inspiration. 



IX 



I HAVE not painted a portrait : I have only made studies. 
But, if anything that I have written shall conduce to a 
better understanding of the man, or of public life in gen- 
eral, or give my countrymen some conception of the 
steadiness and nobility of a Great Public Character, as 
it presented itself to me during the changes of twenty 
years, I shall be amply rewarded. 



CHAPTER I 

ANCESTRY — EARLY LIFE 



WHEN I assisted Mr. Cleveland in the work 
of house-cleaning, after his first return from 
the White House, we found many publica- 
tions dealing with his family history. I could but note 
his indifference to these— most of them being consigned 
to the waste-basket. He told me then, as on many sub- 
sequent occasions, that, in accordance with old-fashioned 
American ideas, and following his own inclinations, he 
had only taken a slight interest in the details revealed 
.by many industrious investigators. Since he had come 
into the higher politics many persons had so exaggerated 
the genealogical point of view that he had been inun- 
dated with questions about his family— most of which 
he could not answer. 

In all these publications he had found little that was 
new or of special value. He insisted that the traditions, 
which somehow drift down in American households 
until they take their place in the history of families, had 
already shown him that each generation of his ancestors 
had been made up of God-fearing, industrious men and 
good women, who — like most of our American progeni- 
tors long settled here— had done their duty as best they 



14 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

could, and that he neither knew nor cared to know more 
than this. 

It was one conclusion from a long observation of life, 
he often insisted, that, whatever pretension or assertive- 
ness may suggest, there can be no better human origin 
than such people as these. He often expressed the 
opinion that a really good family is one in which 
the members have tried so honestly and earnestly, in 
successive generations, to do useful things that their 
success has been assured, and he was satisfied that, so 
long as this result is achieved, there is small cause either 
for pride or vanity of birth or for undue humility, and 
no serious danger of that degeneracy of which so much 
is heard from time to time. 

This characteristic opinion was certainly enough to 
discourage a biographer from an effort to deal, at any 
length, with the questions of his family and origin, and 
makes possible only a brief reference to them. As he 
seldom talked of them, and as, naturally, this book deals, 
almost wholly, with recollections, conversations, impres- 
sions, and opinions derived from personal association 
— information received from him at first hand— it af- 
fords little opportunity for researches of this order. 



II 



The first of the name on the American continent seems 
to have been Moses Cleaveland— the a was dropped 
within two or three generations by the immediate family 
of the man who was to make it known and famous. He 
emigrated from Ipswich in England to Massachusetts 
in 1635. As in a Puritan society it generally required 
only about two generations, from the beginning, to start 



GROVER CLEVELAND 17 

wich, where he fitted for Yale Colleg-e, from which he 
was graduated in 1824. 

Looking- about for a place to begin his life-work, he 
was led to Baltimore, Maryland, where, for a year, he 
filled the position of tutor in a private school. Here he 
met and engaged himself to Anne Neal— born in Feb- 
ruary, 1804— but, as he had not concluded his theological 
studies, he left her behind to enter upon the study of 
his chosen profession in the seminary at Princeton. In 
1829, when he was twenty- four years old, he returned to 
Baltimore, and he and Miss Neal were married. They 
settled for a time at Windham, Connecticut, in which 



But soon, alas! this happy reign 
Must for some other change again. 
Sewell perhaps may next bear rule ; 
_I 'm then a philosophic fool. 
With Jefferson I correspond 
And soar with him the stars beyond, 
While every fibre of the brain 
To sense profound I nicely strain. 
And then arise beyond the ken 
Of common sense and common men. 
But who comes next? Alas! 't is Waters, 
Rushing fearless to headquarters. 
He knows no manners nor decorum. 
But elbows headlong to the forum ; 
Uncouth and odd, abrupt and bold, 
Untaught, unteachable, and uncontrolled, 
Devoid of wisdom, sense, or wit, 
Not one thing right he ever hit. 
Unless by accident, not skill. 
He blundered right against his will; 
Such am I now,— no transmigration 
Can sink me to a lower station. 
Come, Porter, come depose this clown. 
And once for all assume the crown ; 
If aught in Sewell's blood you find 
Will make your own still more refined, 
If found in Cleveland's blood a trait 
To aid 3'ou in the affairs of state. 
Select such parts, but spurn the rest. 
Never to rule my brain or breast. 
Of Waters' blood expel the whole, 
Let not one drop pollute my soul. 
Then rule my head, then rule my heart, 
From folly, weakness, wit apart ; 
With all such qualities I '11 dispense, 
And only give me common sense." 



i8 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

place the young man had been offered the pastorate of 
the Congregational church. Mr. Cleveland always re- 
called with interest that his father had begun his pro- 
fessional life with the enthusiasm and energy which 
distinguished him to the end and that his earnest, elo- 
quent sermons were long remembered in the neighbor- 
hood in which he began his Hfe-work. His health be- 
coming somewhat shattered, he soon accepted a call from 
the Presbyterian church at Portsmouth, Virginia. He 
remained there only long enough to restore his he*alth, 
after which he returned North and, upon the recom- 
mendation of his former instructors at Princeton, he 
was called to the pastorate of the Presbyterian church 
at Caldwell, New Jersey, then, as now, an important 
village near Newark. 

He began work in this new field just before Christ- 
mas, 1834. In the parsonage attached to this modest 
church, Grover Cleveland was born on March 18, 1837. 
He was named for the predecessor of his father who, 
for many years, had been the pastor of the same con- 
gregation, the Rev. Stephen Grover. The first name, 
however, was seldom used even in childhood, and he him- 
self dropped it before he had arrived at manhood. 

In 1841 Richard Falley Cleveland accepted the pastor- 
ate of the Presbyterian church at Fayetteville, New York, 
a small village situated in what was then a pioneer 
region in Onondaga County. The settlement of cen- 
tral New York had only fairly begun, so that Syra- 
cuse, which has long been an important city, was then 
little more than a village. The task of reaching the 
new pastorate was a difficult one, so that it was only 
after many days of weary travel by river, canal, and 
wagon that the Cleveland family, then numbering, in 



GROVER CLEVELAND 19 

addition to the father and mother, three daughters and 
three sons, reached its destination. 

The father settled down to his new and cong-enial 
work. Like ah' ministers in those days, the salary was 
small and the allowances meagre, but the energy of the 
husband and the watchful prudence and loving foresight 
of the wife and mother enabled them, in those days of 
the really simple life, to bring up a family, not in luxury, 
but with all the comforts of life. With only $600 a 
year, upon which few men of this type would now under- 
take the responsibility, there was never anything like 
poverty in the Cleveland home. The necessity existed 
for close management, for care and prudent economy 
on the part of all, and each member did his part in the 
task of making life happy for himself and for others. 

The family remained, at Fayetteville about ten 
years, when, in 1851, the father accepted the presidency 
of the American Home Missionary Society at a salary 
of $1000 a year. This involved the removal, with his 
wife and children — the latter now increased to nine — 
to Clinton in Oneida County. The ruling motive for this 
change was a desire to utilize the educational facilities 
afforded by Hamilton College, then in its youth— now 
become an important centre of education. Here the 
eldest son, the late Rev. William N. Cleveland, finished 
his education, and the yoimger boys were enabled to take 
advantage of the Clinton Academy and schools in prepa- 
ration for a college course. 

Before leaving Fayetteville, Grover, then fourteen 
years old, had taken a place in a grocery-store, where he 
was able to earn $50 a year, with the prospect of doub- 
ling this sum in the second year. At the end of the first 
period, the boy followed the family to Clinton to begin 



20 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

his work in the academy. Mr. Cleveland always spoke 
with enthusiasm of his youthful experience. The duties 
did not greatly differ from those performed by the 
ordinary boy, nor did he claim that he was even more or 
less efficient or active than the average young merchant 
at this tender age, but he always did say that it enabled 
him to begin early in life the study of human nature and 
to get that insight into the motives of men which had 
been so useful to him throughout his public career. As 
the result of this and other humble experiences in early 
life it is perhaps safe to assert that he acquired the 
faculty of knowing the people and of being able to 
reach them as effectively as any other public man of 
his century, with the possible exception of Abraham 
Lincoln. 

Upon joining his family he attended the academy, 
where he made satisfactory progress and looked for- 
ward, in due time, to entering Hamilton College. These 
plans, however, were never carried out, for, in Sep- 
tember, 1853, the family removed to Holland Patent— a 
village about fifteen miles from Utica— the father hav- 
ing been called to the Presbyterian church there. Here 
he died on the first of the succeeding month, leaving his 
wife and children to struggle with the world. The 
mother remained in the new home and kept \vith her 
those members of her family w^ho had not already gone 
out into the world to make their w^ay. She lived in the 
same place until her death in July, 1882, only a few 
weeks before her son, then Mayor of Buffalo, was nomi- 
nated for Governor. 

Mr. Cleveland was fond of talking about his father 
and his courageous and successful struggle as a country 
minister. In the course of a long talk wnth him, in 
November, 1907, after he had been confined to his room 



GROVER CLEVELAND 21 

for some months, somehow the conversation drifted to 
his early experiences — as indeed had been the case on 
many previous occasions. It was perhaps suggested 
by an article he had been reading in which the fact was 
developed that Edward H. Harriman and other men of 
contemporary prominence were sons of clergymen. It 
was one of his habits to take an interest in the careers 
of such men, and so he kept himself pretty well posted 
about them and their doings. 

"Looking back over my life," he often repeated, 
"nothing seems to me to have in it more both of pathos 
and interest than the spectacle of my father, a hard- 
working country clergyman, bringing up acceptably a 
family of nine children, educating each member so that, 
in after life, none suffered any deprivation in this re- 
spect, and that, too, upon a salary which at no time 
exceeded a thousand dollars a year. It would be impos- 
sible to exaggerate the strength of character thus re- 
vealed. It emphasizes," he continued, "the qualities 
of pluck and endurance which have made our people 
what they are," and he often said that nothing in our 
later development, great and commanding though it 
has been, was to be compared with the wonder-working 
process of making men and women — a fact so signifi- 
cant of our ideas and origin. He recalled with pride 
the cheerfulness and resignation of the father and 
mother as well as the devotion of the members of so 
large a family to one another, which led him to realize 
what a boon it was to have been a pioneer in our Amer- 
ican life; to have its effective discipline and to share 
in the honors which these people had won for themselves. 



22 RECOLLECTIONS OF 



III 

The eldest son, William, had obtained employment as 
the principal male teacher in the Institution for the Blind 
at Ninth Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street, New York 
City, which at that time had about two hundred pupils. 
Returning from the funeral of his father, he arranged 
with the institution, of which the late Augustus Schell— 
later a friend and supporter of Grover Cleveland— was 
the president and leading trustee, to give the younger 
brother a place, so that within a few weeks the latter 
became bookkeeper and assistant to the superintendent. 

Mr. Cleveland often spoke of this first absence from 
home and of his earliest real work after going out into 
the world. In 1892, when I was collecting information 
for a sketch of his life, he referred me to Miss Fanny 
Crosby, a pupil and teacher in that institution from 1835 
to 1858. In order to get her impressions of the young 
man as he appeared to her at that time, I had a long 
interview with her in which I had taken down steno- 
graphically her recollections of her former associate 
and teacher. 

Miss Crosby— who is still living in Bridgeport, Con- 
necticut, at an advanced age— is one of those indepen- 
dent persons who do not permit misfortune to keep them 
from hard work or from satisfying their ambitions. 
Blind from infancy, she has been for more than half a 
century one of the most popular hymn-writers in the 
country. During her early life she devoted herself to 
literary work, and, at the same time, to the promotion 
of the interests of the Institution for the Blind, then 
comparatively new and unknown and little appreciated 
by the families of those who had afflicted members. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 23 

From the elaborate notes taken during my visit to Miss 
Crosby I was able to compile, in her own words, the fol- 
lowing account of her early boyish friend who was 
afterward to attain such high distinction: 

When Grover Cleveland came to the institution in 1853, 
he was in his seventeenth year. His mind was unusually well 
developed for his years ; so well, in fact, that he might be called 
a marvel of precocity. He was nearly full grown as to height, 
but slender, though he had reached mental maturity many 
years earlier than the average man. He had an intellectual 
appearance; indeed, it was surprising that one so young was 
able to hold a position of such importance and to make his 
mark in it. He seemed to have about him even then the man- 
ner of a mature man. It was my fortune to make his ac- 
quaintance soon after he came to the institution, and I felt, 
therefore, free to tell him, as I did many times, that he had a 
mind much in advance of his years, and I also used, with 
almost motherly caution, to say to him : "Take care that you 
do not study too much and injure yourself." 

Every moment of his spare time was given to the hardest 
kind of study. He was a persistent reader, devoting most of 
his attention to history, and developing even in those days 
something of a bent for the law, which he was finally to make 
his calling. But he did not confine his reading entirely to such 
solid matter. Many times he favored myself, and other teach- 
ers and pupils in the institution, by reading to us from the 
poets. Among other authors who were favorites of his was 
Thomas Moore, from whom he read a good many selections, 
as well as from Byron. I remember that at one time he read 
Byron's "Corsair" to me. Even tlien he had developed the 
faculty of hard work, which has so distinguished his later 
career, so that it is no new thing for him to burn the midnight 
oil. He did so even as a young man when I first knew him 
thirty-nine years ago. 

No man could have a kinder heart than had Grover Cleve- 
land in those days— days that, to most boys of his age, might 
be termed formative. He came to us almost immediately after 
the death of his father, and as a result he had an air of pensive 



24 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

sadness about him. He showed that he felt very keenly the 
loss of his father. This did not take the form of melancholia, 
but he used often to talk to me about his father in an intimate, 
familiar way that was touching and very natural. As a child, 
he had been brought up in a Christian household, under the 
ministrations of a father noted for his deep piety and of a 
mother distinguished for tenderness and care for her family. 

When he first went there I used often to talk to him when 
his office duties were over, and in due course of time we became 
good friends. Perhaps I knew him quite as well as any of the 
teachers or officers of the institution. He came into contact 
with mature men and women, many of whom have since be- 
come well known in various fields of work, and was able to 
meet them upon their own plane. He showed himself to be 
keen and thoughtful. At the same time he was extremely 
modest; something I have noted with interest since his great 
public career has brought him before the people of his country. 

Indeed, the first time I met him after those early associations 
was in Lakewood, New Jersey, during the past winter. At that 
time I noticed the same modest demeanor. He was interested 
in telling me of an experience of his while President. A con- 
vention or meeting of blind people was held at Baltimore dur- 
ing that time, and he went there on purpose to see them. In 
recounting to me this incident he never referred to the matter 
as having occurred while he was President, but he used a form, 
which I am told he has almost uniformly adopted, of saying, 
"When I was in Washington" ; in fact, I do not believe that 
during our interview he used the word President, or in any 
way said anything to indicate that he had held such an exalted 
office. This was thoroughly characteristic of him, as he was 
always anxious to avoid anything like praise or commendation 
of himself. 

He did not strike me during the period I knew him as a 
young man who would have a great number of friends, al- 
though he had a capacity for friendship. I thought that he 
was somewhat chary of giving his confidence to many people. 
This did not come from any feeling of vanity, but from his 
natural reserve. But when he came to know a person and gave 
his confidence, he did so fully and unreservedly. He was al- 
ways kindly and sympathetic, and during his residence there the 



GROVER CLEVELAND 25 

tendency was strongly developed at every turn. He resented 
occasional cruelties practised by a superintendent, who lacked 
the qualities necessary for a successful administration of such 
an important place. I remember at one time that when a boy 
was punished with undue severity, young Cleveland spoke to 
me about it with much feeling. He could not, of course, in his 
position, take steps to resent it by a physical demonstration, but 
he showed in every word and action that he would like to 
punish its perpetrator in the most efifective way. 

I remember another incident that had a bearing personal to 
myself. The same superintendent had about him a dictatorial 
way when he found himself in authority over anybody. It so 
happened one day that I went down-stairs into the office, where 
Mr. Cleveland worked, and asked him to copy a poem. He did 
so, and when he had nearly finished the work, the superin- 
tendent came in and said, in a very insolent way : "Miss Crosby, 
when you want Mr. Cleveland to copy a piece for you, I will 
thank you to come and ask me." Of course I felt very much 
hurt, and when the superintendent went out, Mr. Cleveland 
said to me : "Now, Fanny Crosby, how long do you intend to 
allow that man to haVrow up your feelings like this?" I asked 
him : "What can I do to stop it?" and he said, "By giving as 
good as he sent." 

I was nonplussed, and in reply I said, "Mr. Cleveland, I 
never was saucy in my life." To this he replied : "But it is not 
impudent to take your own part, and you never will be taught 
independence and self-reliance any younger. Now, we will try 
an experiment. Come down to-morrow, and ask me to copy 
another poem for you. I will do so, and then you come in as 
usual, and you will see the consequences, but in any event make 
up your mind never to let any one impose upon you." Accord- 
ing to this agreement I went down and asked Mr. Cleveland to 
copy a poem for me. As was anticipated, the superintendent 
came in and made the same remark. Then I turned round and 
said to him : "I want you to understand that I am second to no 
one in this institution except yourself, and I have borne with 
your insolence so long that I will do so no longer; if it is re- 
peated. I will report you to the managers." The superintendent 
looked at me with the greatest astonishment, but my reply had 
just the effect that Mr. Cleveland said it would have. I never 



26 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

had any further trouble with the obnoxious superintendent, nor 
did he assume such a manner towards me or Mr. Cleveland any 
more. 

After young Cleveland left the institution I myself remained 
until 1858. I never heard from him or about him until he was 
nominated for Governor in 1882, while Mayor of Buffalo. But 
he took occasion the first time he heard from me to show his 
kindly feeling. While he was Governor one of my friends gave 
me a sort of benefit, and sent an invitation to the Governor. 
He immediately wrote back expressing regret at his inability to 
attend, but saying, "I remember my old friend Fanny Crosby 
very well," and in further token of his remembrance he sent to 
the friend managing the affair a neat little sum of money. 

I have always regretted that I did not keep myself in touch 
with him after he became Governor or President; but in 
both cases I felt that, as I had neglected him for so many years, 
it would not seem just the right thing to open a correspondence 
with him then, because it might look as though I wanted to 
court favor. So I never met him again until at Lakewood last 
winter. 

I cannot say that I have been surprised at his rise to promi- 
nence and greatness. I always felt that he was a man far 
above the average, both intellectually and morally. He seemed 
to me to have great possibilities, so that one who came in con- 
tact with him in an intimate way, as I had an opportunity to do 
by reason of official association with him, would have predicted 
for him a successful career. 

I do not think that he looked upon his teaching work as other 
than preparatory for the more serious struggles of life. But 
he did his duty then, in a humble position, as conscientiously 
and as well as he has shown his ability to do it since in the large 
and important responsibilities thrust upon him. 

While he was Governor he made a visit to the institution in 
company with the late Augustus Schell, who was one of the 
managers during Mr. Cleveland's term of work there. After- 
ward, when I went to the institution, I heard many of the in- 
mates, some who had been there as pupils in his day, say: 
"Well, although Grover Cleveland rose to great power he did 
not forget the Institution for the Blind, and we all praise him 
for it." 



GROVER CLEVELAND 27 

It seems very odd to me to recall after nearly forty years the 
injunction of his older brother. William, to me. The brothers 
were very close friends and associates in spite of the fact that 
William was several years the elder. He always showed his 
desire to protect his younger brother, and would not allow any- 
body to be ungenerous or unjust to him. When they were first 
there together the younger brother was petted a good deal. 
Naturally, he grew out of this to some extent toward the close 
of the joint association there, and yet I recall with pleasure how 
W^illiam. when he was to be absent for a time, would say to 
me, "Well, I know you will be kind to my little brother" — a 
fatherly sort of feeling — something quite in consonance with 
the beautiful character of William Cleveland, who, even as a 
young man, was an exemplary Christian ; generous to every 
one in his class, just in everything he did. I could not speak 
too highly of either of them. 



CHAPTER II 

PROFESSIONAL CAREER 



RETURNING home in 1854, the young man began to 
think anew of the independent career which he had 
mapped out for himself. Although he had con- 
cluded to become a lawyer, for a time he sought, with- 
out success, in Utica and Syracuse, for temporary work 
which should be both congenial and remunerative. 
Thereupon he planned to go to Cleveland, Ohio, a town 
which had attracted his attention for the reason that 
it had been named for some member of his family. On 
his way he stopped in Buffalo to visit his uncle, the late 
Lewis F. Allen, then a well-know^n farmer, also engaged 
in editing the "American Shorthorn Herd Book." As it 
was necessary to revise this publication each year, the 
nephew was persuaded to remain, and so gave up his 
trip to the West. This incident fixed his future resi- 
dence and enabled him to await there the professional 
success and the political career that came to him in due 
time. 

Aided by his uncle, he obtained a place as student 
in the office of Bowen & Rogers, for many years one of 
the leading legal firms in western New York. For a time 

he lived with his uncle some distance from town and 

38 



GROVER CLEVELAND 29 

continued to help him in the pubHcation of the revised 
editions of his book. In 1855 his compensation as office- 
boy had reached the sum of $4 a week. He was then in 
his nineteenth year, and in the days of his power and 
influence he often, recounted to his friends that he was 
thoroughly satisfied to earn this amount, because as the 
result of all his labors he was able to maintain himself 
and even to assist his mother. He worked hard, and 
his name first found its way into print in an acknowledg- 
ment of aid given to his uncle in the preparation of the 
Herd Book for 1861. 

In connection with this work and while also a law 
student, he obtained an insight into the life of the plain, 
every-day people whom he understood so well and so 
often commended. For some years he lived at the South- 
ern Hotel in Buffalo, then a favorite resort for drovers 
and farmers, I came into contact, some years ago, 
wath one or tw^o of the men, then far advanced in years, 
who had known him in these surroundings, and they in- 
sisted that they and their neighbors were always sur- 
prised to find so much knowledge of their own work 
and business in a young law student in what was to 
them a large city. It was here that his country train- 
ing — added to his work with his uncle and his own in- 
terest in a great variety of people — had given him in- 
formation about their occupations to such an extent that 
he was able, without effort, to sjiow that he was almost 
an expert in their business and to obtain fpom them a 
degree of confidence which afforded him that insight 
into the characteristics of many kinds of people which 
was a distinguishing quality, not always recognized 
during his public career. He was wont, all through 
his life, to speak of these early experiences, saying, in 
substance : 



30 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Looking back at that period, I can see that, while 
I lost a great deal by absence from home and family, 
and the lack of other domestic ties, it carried with 
it many compensations. Since entering public life, 
I have often recalled, almost instinctively and with 
advantage, the experiences growing out of the asso- 
ciations of that time. I came into contact, in the 
familiar way which enables one to understand human 
nature, with a class of men then much more com- 
mon than now. Rude in many respects, with little 
of book education and less opportunity for obtain- 
ing it, they had strong, vigorous, and independent 
minds. They had a great deal more of practical 
knowledge than they were then credited with, and 
infinitely more than the studies of that period now 
current lead our young people to know. 

He felt that few things could be more unfortunate 
than that so many persons should plume themselves 
upon their education and culture, and, at the same time, 
fail to remember the narrow facilities enjoyed by their 
grandfathers and fathers only a generation or so back. 
He thought that, many times in his life, when called 
upon to deal with great numbers and kinds of people, 
he had found these early experiences — in store, drovers' 
yard, hotel, or blind asylum — of the utmost value, and, 
without belittling or neglecting the literary side of edu- 
cation, if he could have had his way, he would have in- 
sisted that young men and women should be brought up to 
know more of their fellow-men of every grade and oc- 
cupation. In his view, they would then be better fitted 
to make their way, rather than start, as was too often the 
case, with so little practical knowledge of the real world 
in which they were to live as seriously to handicap them. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 31 



II 

His life at this time was not much out of the common 
run of the average law student. He worked hard at 
his profession, but also confirmed his habit as a per- 
sistent reader of the best literature. He performed the 
work of each day as best he could, forming thus early 
the habit of thoroughness in everything he attempted. 
He was admitted to the bar in May, 1859, but did not 
immediately begin practice on his own account, remain- 
ing four years longer with his preceptors, until he 
became chief clerk. Those who knew him then saw 
in him the wisdom, courage, and honesty which were 
always the salient points in his character. He mas- 
tered every subject he dealt with in all its bearings, 
and, having made up his mind for himself, could no 
more be swerved from his conviction of right than when 
Mayor, Governor, or President. This predominant 
quality of absolute integrity commanded respect. His 
business success was not conspicuous, but was steady. 
He began as chief clerk with the modest salary of $600, 
which was increased, year by year, until in the latter 
part of 1862, when he had just passed the age of twenty- 
five, it had reached $1000. 

On the 1st of January, 1863, he left his preceptors 
and accepted an office which was both professional and 
political in its character: Assistant District Attorney of 
Erie County, at an annual salary of $600. He did 
not enter public life because of any dissatisfaction with 
his work or from undue ambition. He felt that this 
was the quickest and most effective way to reach an in- 
dependent place in his profession. As he was the only 



32 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

assistant in the office, most of the routine work fell upon 
him, and it was here that he fixed still more firmly those 
systematic habits which always stood him in good stead. 
He prepared and filed papers, drew indictments, and 
tried many cases in the courts. He told me that he then 
began to work late into the night, a habit which so 
grew upon him that he was never able to shake it ofif. 
His success in his new position gave him confidence and 
enabled him to extend his circle of acquaintances among 
the people of the country towns, then far more impor- 
tant than now as elements in the political life of Erie 
County. He had also'gained recognition from the mem- 
bers of his profession. 

During his term in this office he was so busily en- 
gaged with his duties that when he was drafted as a 
soldier he could not leave his work to enter the army. 
Two of his brothers were already in the army, the sec- 
ond son, Richard Cecil, having enlisted from Craw- 
fordsville, Indiana, and seen valiant service in the 
Western armies under General Grant. Lewis Fredric, 
another brother, went at the first call from New York 
City and served in the Army of the Potomac. "In each 
case," as I am informed by a member of the family, 
"the first notes of the fife and drum drew the volunteers, 
and the family circle were informed with much pride 
only after they had become 'bonny boys in blue.' " As 
the family were dependent upon the earnings of the 
sons, Mr. Cleveland decided that, instead of entering 
the army, he would obtain a substitute. It is interest- 
ing to add that the bounty thus paid by him was bor- 
rowed from his superior officer, the District Attorney, 
and he told me that it was some time after his term had 
expired before he was able to spare the money to repay 
the loan. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 33 

Although the office of District Attorney was his first 
public place, this did not mark his earliest interest in 
politics. He himself has recorded that he chose his 
party in 1856, nearly a year before he reached his ma- 
jority. In that campaign he favored the election of 
James Buchanan, and in 1858 he cast his first vote for 
the Democratic ticket. 



Ill 

Early in my acquaintance with him, Mr. Cleveland 
began to talk freely about his party affiliations. Only 
a few years before his death, in an article published dur- 
ing a Presidential campaign, he explained these pretty 
fully, so far as principle and personality entered into 
account. He talked very often, and with great free- 
dom, about the old-fashioned methods of politics. These 
were explained by him substantially as follows : 

Before I reached my majority, I had begun work 
in the capacity of what would now be called a prac- 
tical politician, I had no aspirations to be a boss, even 
if either the word or the thing had then been known, 
but I only followed the custom of my time in taking 
my place at the polls and distributing ballots to all 
those who asked for them, using my influence to 
convince the wavering, or to confirm those who be- 
longed to my household of faith. As the result of 
this form of activity, I began as a boy the work of 
distributing ballots, standing alongside the veterans 
of my party. From 1858 until my election as Mayor 
in 1 88 1, I went to the polls, took my place, ballots in 
hand, as a voluntary helper to my party and its 
candidates. 



34 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

He would explain, with interest, how, in those days, 
nobody knew anything about hiring men to do such 
work, because it was both unnecessary and beyond the 
thought in politics. The use of money for any other 
purpose than printing tickets, hiring halls, or raising 
banners, did not enter the minds of voters, because they 
believed in the principles of their party and were not 
only willing but determined to give one day in the year 
to these practical efforts to exemplify them; and he 
continually emphasized his opinion that no change that 
had come over our life seemed to him more hurtful than 
this : that the free, devoted services of earnest men .at- 
tached to principles and personalities should have been 
replaced by a system in which hirelings and heavy ex- 
penditures had become leading and almost dominating 
elements in political management. 

When he talked of his experience in practical politics, 
it was never with a sneer or in jest. To him it was 
very serious. At one of my late meetings with him he 
said: 

I have been amused, since I entered the larger 
public life in 1882, at the spirit of patronage with 
which I have been treated by the so-called poli- 
ticians. Somehow there seems to have been an im- 
pression that I was dealing with something I did 
not understand; but these men little knew how 
thoroughly I had been trained, and how I often 
laughed in my sleeve at their antics. From the be- 
ginning I never felt at a loss in dealing with them, 
because I knew that, back of the machinery with 
which they screened themselves, there was still a 
great and interested mass of people who did not 
wait for permission to form their opinions. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 35 

He insisted that, when he found himself in positions 
of responsibiHty, he had only to appeal to the people 
behind the machine to enable him, in the end, to carry 
out his ideas and purposes. He also felt that this 
kno\vl"ed§-e, acquired in early life, had often fitted him 
to take advantage of the slips which the modern, pro- 
fessional politician always makes, and to appeal efifec- 
tively, when necessary, to the support of sane and sober 
policies. At one of my latest long interviews with him 
he remarked, in the course of conversation: "When 
we shall return, in this country, to the best features of 
the active, personal party methods of our earlier days, 
supporting candidates or policies because, believing in 
them, men are willing to work for them without the 
hope or prospect of reward, we shall have less reason 
to despair either of our institutions or their workings." 

It was, therefore, inevitable that the young man 
should be drawn into the larger public concerns of his 
county and section. From this time forth he was recog- 
nized as a rising figure in politics. At the expiration 
of the term of his superior, his party turned to him as 
a candidate for District Attorney. He had become well 
known in the county, and his opponents realized, in spite 
of their majority, that they would have no easy task to 
defeat him. Among his intimate friends at the time 
was Lyman K. Bass, a young Republican lawyer, after- 
ward elected to Congress. The Republicans realized 
that they must select their strongest candidates. One 
night I\Ir. Cleveland had returned home earlier than 
usual, when he was soon greeted by his roommate, Mr. 
Bass, who said: "Well, Cleve, I have been offered the 
nomination for District Attorney against you." The 
reply was: "Well, why don't you take it?" He did, 
with the result that he was elected by a narrow- majority. 



36 RECOLLECTIONS OF 



IV 

Mr. Cleveland at once returned to his profession as an 
independent practitioner, and in order to do this he de- 
clined the position of Assistant United States District 
Attorney, and associated himself with A. P. Laning and 
Oscar Folsom, the latter one of his closest friends, who 
had himself accepted the office in question. Here he had 
a chance to demonstrate how well he had profited by his 
experience in an important professional place. 

The partnership continued until 1870, when Mr. 
Cleveland accepted the Democratic nomination for 
Sheriff of Erie County. He hesitated for some time, 
because it was unusual for lawyers to accept this office, 
but he concluded that there were strong reasons for 
doing so. He always said he had worked very hard ever 
since he was a boy of sixteen, so that he had had little 
time for reading and for the thorough professional 
study of which he felt the need. He, therefore, con- 
cluded that the Sheriff's office, by taking him out of 
practice for a time and still keeping him about the courts 
in a professional relation, would give him the required 
leisure for the needed study. Another important ele- 
ment was that he could save a little money. So, when 
the advice of friends confirmed his judgment, he ac- 
cepted the nomination and was elected. He performed 
his duties while in the office well and satisfactorily, and 
returned, on January i, 1874, to the practice of the 
law, a stronger man and with a much wider outlook 
than he had had before. He always insisted that this 
temporary diversion had enabled him to take a better 
place than he would have otherwise held. 

When his term expired, he went into partnership with 



GROVER CLEVELAND 37 

his old rival, Lyman K. Bass, and a younger associate, 
then already known as an excellent lawyer, the late Wil- 
son S. Bissell, who was to attain prominence by becom- 
ing Postmaster-General in his second administration. 
With some few changes in personnel, the firm continued 
until Mr. Cleveland went to Albany to become Governor 
in January, 1883, by which time he had become one of 
the recognized leaders of the bar of this city and sec- 
tion of the State. He had maintained his interest in 
politics, without seeking or accepting office. Now and 
then he would go to a State convention as a delegate. 
He had neither the reputation nor character of an am- 
bitious man, nor, at that time, would the public have 
looked to him as the most available figure for great 
public responsibilities. He had become a lawyer who 
gave close attention to his work and to his profession 
and the duties which it involved. 



In writing about Mr. Cleveland at a time when his po- 
litical success had somewhat obscured his position as 
a lawyer, I procured from the late Wilson S. Bissell an 
estimate of the professional work and position of his 
partner. This was done at the suggestion of Mr. Cleve- 
land himself, and as nothing since written about this 
part of his life has either improved or superseded the 
resulting description of his legal attainments, I repro- 
duce it herewith as one of the most interesting of the 
documents pertaining to his career : 

Buffalo, New York, August i, 1892. 
Dear Mr. Parker: 

My acquaintance with Mr. Cleveland began in August. 1869. 
T had just graduated from Yale and made application for and 



38 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

was admitted to a clerkship in the office of Laning, Cleveland & 
Folsom, the firm of which he was a member, and which was 
then just organized. The firm did a very large business. They 
were the attorneys for the New York Central and the other 
Vanderbilt railroads centring at Buffalo, and they had a large 
miscellaneous practice as well. I was one of the six clerks em- 
ployed by them. They defended the New York Central Rail- 
road in a class of suits brought to recover penalties for 
overcharge of fare. These suits became a very remarkable 
class of litigation, aggregating more than three thousand in 
number. 

I soon found that Mr. Cleveland was the "working member." 
Laning and Folsom were both brilliant men, but Cleveland 
was undoubtedly the most profound lawyer and was the main- 
stay of the office. He was generally the first one in the office 
in the morning and the last one out of it at night, and all the 
hours of these long days were devoted with patience and zeal 
to the work he found before him. 

He had already attained prominence at the bar, the result of 
no influence or relationships or of adventitious circumstance, 
but of patient industry and of downright — and always upright 
— hard work. And so, even then, he was of the lawyers of 
his years facile princeps. His further achievements as a law- 
yer, which brought him into the very front rank of his profes- 
sion, were only added and natural results of his untiring 
industry and energ}^ To these the other disadvantages of 
limited education and early mental training also yielded. 

How well and how encouraging it would be to the younger 
struggling lawyers of to-day if they could appreciate the exact 
truthfulness of these statements, and take the lesson of it to 
themselves! True, he was endowed with a great fund of good 
common sense, and he was honest — honest with himself, 
honest with his client, honest with his subject. He thus be- 
came, mentally, rather judicial than partizan. and he would 
have made as able and capable a Chief Justice as he was a 
President. 

In the trial of a cause he neither relied on "genius" nor the 
inspiration of the moment to help him out. but upon most 
careful and painstaking preparation of the case in advance and 
the anticipation of every possible adverse contingency. Before 



GROVER CLEVELAND 39 

the trial he was always timid and self-distrustful; once pushed 
or dragged into court by his client, however, he was not only 
part and parcel of the case, but bold and self-reliant; and 
through much practice he acquired great skill and sagacity in 
marshaling his facts before the jury. 

During a trial he would devote himself to the case absolutely 
and completely, whether it was large or small, whether with 
fee or without, and for a rich client or for a poor one. The 
noon hour was, for him, always an opportunity for further 
study and preparation — not for eating — and the hours of the 
night, not infrequently the whole night, a further oppoitunity. 

And so he honestly bought and paid for success with honest 
work. In an address Jjef ore the bar on the occasion of the 
death of his devoted personal friend, Oscar Folsom, referring 
to his qualities as a lawyer, he said: "In the practice of his 
profession, and in the solution of legal questions, he clearly saw 
what was right and just, and then he expected to find the law 
leading him directly there." This with truthfulness could and 
should be said of Mr. Cleveland. 

In those days it was the habit of the judges of that locality, 
more than now, when a close legal question would arise in a 
trial, to call for an opinion upon it in open court from some 
lawyer in the court-room not engaged in the case. So good 
and well recognized was Cleveland's judgment, and so great 
his legal attainments, that he would almost invariably be the 
lawyer thus consulted, whenever he happened to be present. 
"The law is a jealous mistress," but there was never occasion 
in Cleveland's case to suggest a lack of devotion. Of course 
it would have been impossible to yield such devotion to his pro- 
fession if he had not loved it; but he loved his professional 
work, found his greatest pleasure and satisfaction in it, and 
he loved also the study of the law as a science. 

This fact will serve to explain the interruption in his profes- 
sional career which he permitted when he became Sheriff. His 
opportunity for considering that step was less, perhaps, than of 
any important act of his life. The circumstances were these: 
There was an important local ticket to be nominated, and there 
seemed a fair opportunity to overcome a normally large ad- 
verse majority by the selection of a strong combination of 
candidates. Cleveland was popular and had made a splendid 



40 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

run for District Attorney of the county not long before. On 
the day before the nominating convention was to be held it 
was suggested that Cleveland should take the nomination. 
Such a contingency had never entered his mind, and he at first 
declined to listen to the suggestion. Party managers then 
surrounded him. and at length successfully urged upon him 
the importance of the subject as a party matter, and his duty 
and obligation to his party. Yet in connection with his reluc- 
tant assent was the consideration, expressed to me that day, 
that if he should be elected it would afford him a longed-for 
and splendid opportunity to study law. 

His partners were loath to lose him, both because they were 
personally much attached to him and because they had come to 
know and rely upon his great strength and ability as a lawyer. 
He had had the laboring oar in all their more important litiga- 
tions, and was in the midst of great activity and usefulness. 
He was conservative by nature and a safe counselor. Indeed, 
if he erred at all, it was on the side of conservatism and safety. 

Mr. Cleveland was in the best sense a successful lawyer. He 
never belonged to the class of ''money-making" lawyers, al- 
though he often received large fees for his professional ser- 
vices. He always met his personal obligations promptly, and 
he abhorred debt ; but he never had any desire to accumulate a 
fortune, and he was generous to a degree. I recall the fact that, 
on resuming the practice of law after the expiration of his 
term as Sheriff, his first act was to lend a considerable sum of 
money to a poor client in distress. His generosity was evi- 
denced not alone by direct gifts of money, but by professional 
advice and service. He tried many a case without fee or the 
expectation of it, and often intervened to prevent the doing of 
injustice because of his hatred of injustice. A notable instance 
of this was his devotion to the case of Flannigan before Gov- 
ernor Cornell. Cleveland's first relation with the case was 
after the man had been sentenced to be hanged, and despite 
Cornell's well-known disinclination to exercise the pardon 
power, he secured a commutation of the sentence to life-im- 
prisonment. 

It seemed to him always a pleasure as well as a duty to give 
aid and counsel to the younger members of the bar, and many 
a successful lawyer of to-day in Buffalo will recall and attest 
the readiness and cheerfulness with which he aided in com- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 41 

plicated legal situations, or assisted as counsel in the trial of 
causes, accepting for himself at most nothing but nominal fees. 

On January i, 1874, he resumed the practice of law, becom- 
ing a member of the firm of Bass, Cleveland & Bissell. Mr. 
Bass was then a member of Congress, and by reason of failing 
health he removed to Colorado to reside at the expiration of 
his term of office, so that Mr. Cleveland became practically the 
head of the firm at once. The business of the office was large 
and active, consisting of a general miscellaneous practice, and 
he applied himself to it as assiduously as ever during the 
ensuing eight years. This was the period of his greatest 
activity and usefulness as a lawyer. He tried and argued cases 
in all the courts of the State and in the District and Circuit 
Courts of the United States. He was one of the counsel who 
secured for the plaintiff the largest verdict ever rendered by a 
jury in western New York — upward of $240,000. He worked 
incessantly, and his vacation period never exceeded ten days in 
the year. 

He was engaged in the trial of a case in court in October, 
1 88 1, when he was again called upon by his party to do further 
public service by accepting the nomination for Mayor of 
Buffalo, which was then tendered and urged upon him. He 
yielded to this demand the more readily because he saw before 
him not only an opportunity to serve his party, but to perform a 
public duty, and, although he remained a partner in the law 
firm of Cleveland, Bissell & Sicard during the following year, 
still, with characteristic regard for and conscientious devotion 
to the performance of official duty, his personal interests as a 
lawyer were set aside for a time, and, as events proved, for 
seven years. 

Two things remain to be said in portraying Mr. Cleveland's 
career as a lawyer : One, that in all his varied relations with 
clients, lawyers, and courts his every act was characterized by 
the highest sense of honor and by the most delicate apprecia- 
tion of and compliance with all the rules of professional ethics ; 
and the other, that every professional engagement, great or 
small, received the best judgment, thought, and energy of 
which he was capable. Nothing he undertook was slighted ; 
therefore all his work was done well. 

Yours sincerely. 

W. S. Bissell. 



CHAPTER III 

MAYOR OF BUFFALO — CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR 



IN 1 88 1 Buffalo found it necessary to recognize the 
changed conditions of municipal development. It 
was increasing in population and wealth, and in im- 
portance as a business centre of western New York. 
Lying at the western end of the Erie Canal, at the head 
of lake navigation, and with growing railroad facilities, 
it had developed from village to town, from town to 
city. It had outgrown primitive methods, and yet 
neither the people nor the system of government had 
been assimilated to the new surroundings. Politics and 
business had become so intermingled that it was often 
difficult to tell where one began and the other ended. 
Occasionally Democrats would carry the city, but, as a 
rule, it was in the hands of Republicans. Whether one 
or the other was in power made little difference, but it 
became clear that unless methods were changed the city 
would suffer. 

When a revolt against machine rule was inaugurated 
in 1 88 1, the opposition elements looked about for a 
Democrat who would both be likely to carry the election, 
and, by recognizing the new conditions, change them 
for the better. A number of offices were to be filled, 

42 



GROVER CLEVELAND 43 

and many elements had to be satisfied. The matter was 
broached to JNIr. Cleveland, and he declined at first to 
consider it; but when importunity became stronger, he 
consented to accept the nomination if the convention 
would select a ticket satisfactory to him and the reform 
element in his own party as well as to the independents. 
In accordance with his insistence, ordinary rules were 
so reversed that nominations for minor ofiices were 
made before the candidate for Mayor was chosen. The 
convention was held on October 25, 1881, and INIr. Cleve- 
land became the head of the ticket as a candidate for 
Mayor. 

He was thus able to put his canvass upon high ground, 
promoting public interest and, at the same time, keep- 
ing his party up to the highest possible standard. In 
his speech accepting the nomination, he first emphasized 
his own reluctance and then insisted that: 

Because I am a Democrat, and because I think no one has a 
right at this time of all others to consult his own inclinations 
as against the call of his party and fellow-citizens, and hoping 
that I may be of use in your efforts to inaugurate a better rule 
in municipal affairs, I accept the nomination tendered me. 

He also believed that much could be done to reduce 
taxation ; that the most rigid scrutiny of public expendi- 
tures ought to effect a saving to the community; that 
existing extravagance, which he never attempted to 
overrate, could be corrected without injury to the ser- 
vice ; and that the affairs of the city should be managed 
with the same care and economy as private interests. 
He added a significant phrase to the effect that "when 
we consider that public officials are the trustees of the 
people, and hold their places and exercise their powers 



44 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

for the benefit of the people, there should be no higher 
inducement of a faithful and honest discharge of public 
duty." 

This was to have consequences reaching much further 
than its author could have thought upon that October 
day when he uttered it. Three years later, when, in 
1884, the late Colonel Lamont was casting about for a 
title to the first pamphlet issued during the Presidential 
campaign, with the instinct of the newspaper man, he 
tried to find a head-line. So he finally condensed, from 
the paragraph just quoted, the sentiment, "Public office, 
a public trust." This was the origin of the sentiment 
always attributed to Mr. Cleveland, but of which he 
never claimed to be the author. It was merely the 
smart, keen insight of a born politician who had coined 
a phrase 50on to become famous. But the idea was his, 
and he thus sounded the keynote of a whole career. 
Upon this principle was based the whole of the campaign 
for the mayoralty, and it permeated the four others of 
which he was destined to be the head. 

The canvass was brief, and the candidate made no 
further speeches. He was able to command the united 
support of his own party and that of a considerable 
element among his opponents. Some of the leading Re- 
publican papers either openly supported him or failed 
to oppose him, so that the movement in his favor was 
soon full of enthusiasm and vigor. He had declared at 
the beginning that he would not permit the use of money 
for the purpose of influencing voters, and that he would 
make no canvass in the saloons, as was then common. 
He carried out his promise to neglect no legitimate 
means to deserve and command the public support, and 
after the short, sharp campaign, conducted through- 
out in this spirit, he was elected Mayor by a majority 



GROVER CLEVELAND 45 

of thirty-five hundred, carrying into office with him, by 
good and sufficient majorities, the entire Democratic 
ticket. 

He at once began to put his afifairs in order for the 
responsible duties which he must soon assume. He so 
arranged his law business that it might be carried on by 
his partners, and prepared to give the whole of his time 
to public work. He immediately recalled the promises he 
had made when nominated — not merely as something by 
which he had been able to command election, but as 
something to be redeemed. He announced that he saw 
no reason why the business of the city should not be 
conducted as economically and conscientiously as if it 
were his own private concern. He thought first of the 
city, next of his own party, and last of himself. 



II 

Entering upon his official duties on January i, 1882, 
no formal inaugural ceremony was necessary. The 
next day he sent to the Council an elaborate message 
setting forth in detail his conception of the duties that 
lay before him and the body which he addressed. He 
insisted that the money of the people had been placed 
in their hands to further public purposes, and that when 
any part of the funds of the taxpayers was diverted 
to other purposes, or when a greater sum was applied 
to any municipal purpose than was necessary, it con- 
stituted a violation of duty and of the oath of office. 
To him there was "no difference in his duties and ob- 
ligations whether a person is intrusted with the money 
of one man or many." He again expressed the idea 
that he and the members of the Council were "the trus- 



46 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

tees and agents of our fellow-citizens, holding their 
funds in sacred trust to be expended for their benefit." 

He began, even thus early, to demonstrate that ca- 
pacity for details which was so to distinguish him in 
the public mind during the remainder of his life. The 
paving and cleaning of streets, abuses incident to pub- 
lic printing, remissness in the duties of the City Auditor's 
office — were all dealt with in his first message. As he 
went on, he discovered other weak spots in the conduct 
of the city business. When the German newspapers 
were designated to do the city's printing at a large ex- 
pense, he vetoed the resolution in spite of the fact that 
the German population bore a very important relation 
to its entire number of inhabitants, insisting that the 
expenditure of public money in such cases came very 
near to being a subsidy which nobody ought to encour- 
age and which the people of the city ought not to toler- 
ate. He called attention to the discrepancy between the 
cost of public and private improvements, and scarcely 
a week passed that he did not transmit a message 
couched in language so strong and positive that there 
was more than the usual difficulty in dealing with it. 
He discovered provisions for extra pay for clerks, 
demanded the improvement of water supply and sewer- 
age, insisted that the law should not be evaded by di- 
viding contracts into several parts so that they might 
be awarded without advertising, as required by law, in 
all these cases interposing the veto with success. 

Proceeding from generals to particulars, within a few 
months after he became Mayor he sent to the Council 
the most important of his messages. A bill appropriat- 
ing more than four hundred thousand dollars for the 
cleaning of streets came before him, and as this estimate 
was higher than that of another bidder, he sent to the 



GROVER CLEVELAND 47 

Council what came to be known as his "Plain Speech 
Veto," in w^hich he insisted that "clumsy appeals to pre- 
judice or passion, insinuations with a kind of low, cheap 
cunning as to the motives and purposes of others, and 
the mock heroism of brazen effrontery which openly 
declares that a wholesome public sentiment is to be set 
at naught, sometimes deceive and lead honest men to 
aid in the consummation of schemes which, if exposed, 
they would look upon with abhorrence." 

It is scarcely necessary, at this distance from the 
events under consideration, and with the limitations I 
have imposed upon myself, to develop further particu- 
lars. It is sufficient to say that, in less than six months, 
he was recognized as one of the strong, virile figures 
both of his city and his State. At no time did he turn 
aside to look for higher honors. Then, as ever, he acted 
as if the duty which lay before him was the only one 
requiring attention. He could not, however, avoid men- 
tion of his name as an eligible candidate for the guberna- 
torial nomination, which was soon to be made, but he 
refused, then as ever, to use one office as a stepping- 
stone to another. 

During his term as Mayor he developed an unsus- 
pected capacity for public speaking, which was destined, 
in due time, to make him one of the most sought-for 
men in the public life of that time. He made few 
speeches, and none of them was long, but those that he 
delivered found acceptance, not only with his hearers 
but with a wide reading public. 



Ill 

The people of western New York had long deemed 
themselves neglected by reason of inability to obtain 



48 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

recognition from either party for any candidate for 
Governor. It was but natural that the local pride of 
the judicial district, which then comprised a goodly 
population of the western section of the State, should 
assert itself anew with little regard to party. In order 
to do this a strong sentiment was developed in favor 
of presenting for this honor the man who had so dis- 
tinguished himself as ]\Iayor of Buffalo. It is the fash- 
ion, when reputations are made within a brief time, to 
attribute them to luck; but Mr. Cleveland's friends and 
the people of his district knew better. 

The Republican nomination for Governor in 1882 pro- 
duced a great deal of dissatisfaction, for the reason that 
the candidate chosen, the late Charles J. Folger, then 
Secretary of the Treasury, was supposed to be the candi- 
date of the Federal administration, nominated by the 
ruthless use of office-holding machinery. It was im- 
possible to eradicate this idea from the public mind. 

As a result of this feeling, there was a strong com- 
petition for the Democratic nomination. Both Brook- 
lyn and New York presented strong and vigorous candi- 
dates, the first in the person of the late General Henry 
W. Slocum, and the latter in that of the late Roswell P. 
Flower. Neither commended himself entirely to the 
independent sentiment which had been aroused in the 
Republican party. So Mr. Cleveland's friends, many 
of them Republicans, made up their minds to present 
his name for nomination at the State Convention, which 
was to meet in Syracuse on September 22. They formed 
committees, allotted the work among themselves, car- 
ried the local caucuses, and were ready to march upon 
Syracuse with a fair number of delegates. 

But Mr. Cleveland's record as Mayor of Bufifalo had 
not been limited, in repute, to his immediate neighbor- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 49 

hood. Among others, Daniel Manning, then the most 
potent manager in his party, had been attracted to the 
work of the Bufifalo Mayor. Among those who were 
active agents in promoting this work w^as Edgar K. 
Apgar, who, as a deputy in one of the departments at 
Albany, and as one of the accepted pupils of Samuel J. 
Tilden, had been authorized by Mr. Manning to find out 
how much strength the movement in favor of Mr. Cleve- 
land's nomination might have. Mr. Apgar, on August 
23, wrote to Mr. Cleveland, assuring him of the conclu- 
sion to which he had come, that his nomination for Gov- 
ernor would more certainly insure success than any- 
other that could be made. He averred that he had 
formed and expressed this opinion many weeks earlier — 
even before his name had been mentioned in the Buffalo 
papers— and that his conviction had been confirmed and 
strengthened by time and thought. 

Assuring him that he had consulted with many men 
qualified to know, and that all of them, after due con- 
sideration, had come to the conclusion that this was the 
policy to pursue, he suggested to Mr. Cleveland that he 
should meet Mr. Manning, who represented so large 
an element in the Democratic party; that the na- 
tional and controlling local leaders were accustomed to 
seek Mr. Manning's counsel and to follow it; and that, 
while he understood Mr. Cleveland was not seeking the 
nomination for Governor, he was sure that a conference 
with Mr. Manning would simplify the situation and 
enable everybody interested to reach the proper conclu- 
sion, viz., the one he had already emphasized. In the 
course of his letter, Mr. Apgar said: 

The Democratic party has so often, in recent years, abandoned 
its principles and made dishonest alliances for the sake of tem- 
porary success, which even in most cases it has failed to secure, 

4 



50 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

that it has, naturally, largely lost the confidence of the people. 
It h"a^ fallfti, in so rhany instances, into bad hands, that thou- 
sands of Republicans, tired of their own party and longing for 
a change, have been fearful to trust our promises of reform. 

Then, as with almost prophetic insight, he proceeded : 

If we had stood faithfully by Jefifersonian principles; if we 
had exercised all the power of legitimate party discipline to 
destroy corruption and demagogism in our own ranks; if we 
had been content to deserve success and to wait for it, we 
would, in my judgment, have been for many years firmly in- 
trenched in power in the State and nation. The weakness of 
our present position, in which we seem to depend more upon 
Republican dissensions and decay than upon any strength of 
our own, is, I think, much more due to our failures in the direc- 
tions I have indicated than it is to any personal or factional 
quarrels which have existed among us. 

Naturally, this put Mr. Cleveland's canvass upon a 
new footing and devolved new responsibilities. He evi- 
dently looked upon the matter in this light, and, as a 
result, he took some time to consider it. He discussed 
the situation fully and freely with his friends, and six 
days later wrote the following letter, which has never 
before been printed : 

Buffalo, August 29, 1882. 
My dear Sir: 

Your letter of the 23d I have read with much satisfaction, 
not only because of the interest thereby manifested in my can- 
didacy, but not the less on account of your sentiments therein 
expressed, so much in accord with my own, touching the cause 
of Democracy generally and the condition of our party and its 
needs if success is to be attained. 

The suggestion you make in relation to my seeking an inter- 
view with Mr. Manning I have thoughtfully considered. I am 
sorry that I have not the honor of a personal acquaintance with 



GROVER CLEVELAND 51 

one who occupies so prominent a position in the party and who 
has it in his power to assist my cause so much. I hope it will 
not be very long before I shall have the opportunity of meeting 
him face to face. May I be allowed, however, to suggest to 
you, who have kindly said that you favor my nomination and 
hope for my election, that the fact referred to in your letter 
that I am not seeking the nomination for Governor by personal 
importunity and have refrained from adopting that line of 
conduct, together with other considerations which will perhaps 
occur to you, based upon existing conditions, perhaps furnish 
reasons why I should not at this time depart from the course 
which I have adopted, for the purpose of bringing about an 
interview which it seems to me could not fail, if for no other 
reason than because it was exceptional, to be misconstrued and 
misinterpreted. 

The hearty and spontaneous efforts of my friends and neigh- 
bors to secure my nomination have been most gratifying, and I 
feel that I ought to second their endeavors in every way which 
my judgment approves. The assurance of support and aid 
contained in your letter, coming as they do from one with 
whom I have no personal acquaintance, add greatly to my satis- 
faction and encouragement. I hope it is needless for me to say 
that, in common with all real Democrats. I sincerely desire the 
unity of the party and the success which must, I think, be con- 
sequent thereupon ; that I shall accept without question the 
result of the convention, whatever it may be. and continue to 
labor for the election of Democratic nominees and the triumph 
of Democratic principles. 

Yours sincerely. 

Grover Cleveland. 
Edgar K. Apgar, Esq.. 

Albany, New York. 



IV 

When the delegations from western New York were 
ready to go to Syracuse, it was intimated that it might 
be a good thing if they could take with them their 



52 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

candidate, who was comparatively unknown to the great 
majority of the men who made up the membership of 
the convention. At first he ridiculed the suggestion and 
seemed determined to take his own course; but late on 
the evening of the day before the convention was to 
meet, apparently by some prearrangement, he was so 
inundated with telegrams that he consented, almost 
without any time for preparation, to make the visit. He 
reached Syracuse late in the day, met Mr. Manning, and 
impressed upon the mind of the latter and his friends 
the fact that a new personality had appeared in Demo- 
cratic politics. He then returned to Buffalo and was 
at his desk the next morning. 

He always spoke with a good deal of interest of his 
trip to Syracuse. As already stated, he had manifested 
the strongest disinclination to comply with the request 
of his friends, but when he had done so, the humor of 
the situation appealed to him. He said in substance: 

It was almost beyond my understanding what to 
do, or for what purpose I was needed at Syracuse. 
As this was my first meeting with Mr. Manning, 
who had thrown himself into the management of 
my canvass, I was, naturally, desirous of doing what- 
ever he wanted. I reached there early in the even- 
ing of a very hot day, and found myself at once, 
coatless, in all the hurly-burly of a State convention. 
I soon discovered that the principal thing that was 
wanted was a chance to look me over, with the result 
that, in spite of the difficulty of submitting to such 
an unusual test, I came rather to enjoy it. As I 
remember, I remained about the hotel, being intro- 
duced to delegates from every part of the State, talk- 
ing freely with Mr. Manning and the various gentle- 



1 




^-^ 



^ 



\ 







DANIKI. MANNING 
Secretary of the Treasury in the first administration, 1885-18 



GROVER CLEVELAND 53 

men attached to my fortunes, and finally, about two 
o'clock, I took a train back to Buffalo. It was a novel 
experience, but, after the training I had had, did not 
impress me, after all, as having in it so many diffi- 
culties as I had anticipated. 

In general, he was inclined to discourage the personal 
appearance of candidates before conventions, or even 
before the people, more than was absolutely necessary, 
but he realized what the cuiiosity is, on the part of the 
delegates and interested men, to see the candidate for 
whom they are asked to cast their vote, and looked upon 
this, his first and last experience of the kind, as an inter- 
esting event in his career. In the convention the next 
day, he commanded, on the first ballot, a fair vote, which 
was largely augmented on the second; after w^hich the 
drift became so strong — not only because of his merits, 
but because of the antagonism between the two candi- 
dates from the eastern part of the State — that he was 
nominated by a substantial majority on the third ballot. 



Then followed one of the most remarkable campaigns 
ever known, even in the political history of New York. 
Opposition to the Republican candidate within his own 
party became so decided and the drift toward Mr. Cleve- 
land was so strong that there was no such thing as check- 
ing it. One leading man after another, in every part 
of the State, bolted the nomination of Judge Folger 
and allied himself openly with the Democratic candi- 
date. Many of the sturdiest Republican newspapers 
pursued the same policy. 

A little more than a fortnight after the adjournment 



54 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

of the Syracuse Convention, Mr. Cleveland's letter of 
acceptance appeared. It was based wholly upon the 
lines laid down by him during his short service as Mayor 
of Buffalo. He framed it in keeping with the larger 
politics upon which he had entered. In it he paid no 
attention whatever to Federal politics, except to con- 
demn the interference of public officials in the making 
of nominations for State offices. He took a strong posi- 
tion in favor of reform in the Civil Service, and against 
assessments upon office-holders. It was as natural that 
he should pronounce in favor of home rule in cities as 
that he should insist upon the proper regulation of cor- 
porations. In view of the importance of this question 
in recent years, it will be of interest to quote a single 
paragraph : 

Corporations are created by the law for certain defined pur- 
poses, and are restricted in their operations by specific limita- 
tions. Acting within their legitimate sphere they should be 
protected ; but when, by combination or by the exercise of 
unwarranted power, they oppress the people, the same au- 
thority which created should restrain them and protect the 
rights of the citizen. The law lately passed for the purpose of 
adjusting the relations between the people and corporations 
should be executed in good faith, with an honest design to ef- 
fectuate its objects and with a due regard for the interests 
involved. 

He also took high ground in the matter of the im- 
provement and management of the canals, pronounced 
strongly against the expenditure of money in elections, 
and again emphasized the duty "which public servants 
owe, by constantly bearing in mind that they are put in 
place to protect the rights of the people, to answer their 
needs as they arise, and to expend, for their benefit, the 
money drawn from them by taxation." 



GROVER CLEVELAND 55 



VI 

He made no speeches and wrote no other pubhc letters. 
When the votes were counted it was found that he had 
been chosen Governor by 192,854 majority. Nothing 
like it had been seen in the politics of an American State. 
Here was a man who, to the ordinary politician, was 
almost unknown. He had never held any office outside 
of a comparatively small city, and yet he had been 
elected Governor by a most decisive majority. In this 
day of triumph, when his partizans everywhere were 
indulg-ing- themselves in demonstrations of enthusiasm, 
the man who was the subject of it felt more strongly 
than ever before a sense of responsibility seldom equaled 
in the annals of our public life. But there was no vanity, 
no exultation, no assertion, even in his most confidential 
relations with his friends — no expression of any feeling 
but the sense of obligation which rested upon him from 
that time forward. 

During the remainder of his term as Mayor he went 
about his usual duties, accepted few of the hundreds of 
invitations that came to him, and made but one speech, 
that at a reception given him by the Manhattan Club in 
December. Here he set forth anew his conception of 
responsibility, and repeated many of the ideas which he 
was afterward able to carry out as executive officer. 



CHAPTER IV 

GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK — PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 



M 



'R. Cleveland went to Albany only one day be- 
fore the time fixed for his inauguration as 
Governor. He did not encourage the attend- 
ance of Buffalo friends or delegations, but was accom- 
panied only by his friend and law partner, Wilson S. 
Bissell. On New Year's day he took office, with a brief 
address and the simple ceremonies which have long 
been the rule in New York. When the Legislature 
convened on the next day he sent in his message and was 
fairly embarked upon his new and broader career. 

A Governor of New York is put to a severe test 
owing to the fact that the State has such a great popu- 
lation and varied interests. Especially in the olden 
days this office was looked upon as only second in impor- 
tance to that of the Presidency, and yet but one of its 
holders— Martin Van Buren — had been preferred for 
the higher place. The names of those who had been 
elevated to that lofty position were proof of the truth 
of this claim. George Clinton, De Witt Clinton, Silas 
Wright, William L. Marcy, William H. Seward, Horatio 
Seymour, John A. Dix, and Samuel J. Tilden were 
among Mr. Cleveland's principal predecessors, so that 

56 



GROVER CLEVELAND 57 

he came into office with the obHgation strong upon him 
to maintain its traditions. 

The people of the State did not have to wait long 
to discover that they made no mistake when they placed 
their power into the hands of one entirely worthy to 
wield it. The enormous majority which had been re- 
corded in his favor only a few weeks before enhanced 
rather than diminished the responsibility which he felt. 

Mr. Cleveland had not been identified, in any definite 
way, with the management of his party, so that it was 
not necessary to take sides. Neither then, nor at any 
other time in his life, did he ally himself with a faction. 
He had incurred few obligations to individuals and none 
to districts or interests. His training in the exacting 
duties of his profession and his experience in the pub- 
lic trusts confided to him, his settled habit of considering 
on its merits everything presented to him, his policy of 
examining everything with great care, but never cross- 
ing streams before he came to them— all were of ser- 
vice to him in what he always looked upon as one of 
the emergencies of his life. 



II 

His first annual message, like that of every man who 
comes newly to a governorship, was prepared under the 
difficulties incident to lack of opportunity to get fairly 
into the atmosphere of State business. In the opening 
sentence he said : 

I transmit this, my first annual message, with the intimation 
that a newly elected executive can hardly be prepared to present 
a complete exhibit of State affairs, or to submit in detail a great 
variety of recommendations for the action of the Legislature. 



58 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Naturally it was a brief, concise document, limited 
to the smallest number of subjects consistent with pre- 
cedent, and dealt in a practical way with public affairs, 
treating them in the same manner as he would his own 
private business. 

Long after he had served a term as President, he said 
to me many times that he did not think he had ever 
undertaken a harder task than that which devolved upon 
him in the preparation of his first message as Governor. 
As it was his first experience in State politics, he said 
it was an absolute necessity that, under the circum- 
stances, he must deal almost wholly with general con- 
ditions, because it was impossible that any man,, coming 
unprepared to such a place, should have the sure grasp 
of State affairs which would enable him to import into 
his message any considerable measure of original sug- 
gestion. He declared that he found in those days, as 
well as in his later experience as President, that his 
lack of legislative experience and his ignorance of the 
legislative mind were drawbacks. He always insisted 
that the system pursued, not only in New York but in 
many other States, of expecting from a new Governor 
a message outlining serious legislative policies was, on 
the whole, a bad one. 

The reason assigned for this opinion was that, while 
occasionally a new Governor may have taken part in a 
given agitation or held certain ideas that he would like 
to carry into effect because of his interest in them, yet 
his position makes it necessary for him to conceal or 
cover up his lack of information on many of the vital 
topics which must come before him for action or opinion 
in the course of his work. For this reason he believed 
that the considerable interim allowed by the Federal 
Constitution between the Presidential election and the 



GROVER CLEVELAND 59 

maug-uration gave the new official a great advantage 
over what he would have if compelled to come into 
office without the time for complete preparation. 



Ill 

Of necessity he dealt with the interests of the canals 
and emphasized their importance because, at the last 
session of the Legislature, before his accession, the 
State had decided to free the canals from tolls, and he 
insisted that, as the people had surrendered the pro- 
tection thus afforded, together with the revenue derived 
from the tolls, the new system should have time to com- 
mend itself before heavy expenditures were made for 
enlarging the canals. 

He devoted considerable attention to the public 
schools ; emphasized the importance of careful attention 
to banks and insurance companies; showed a compre- 
hensive grasp of the relations which the National Guard 
should bear to the State, and was emphatic in his in- 
sistence that the management of prisons and charitable 
institutions should be improved. In dealing with the 
latter, his early experience had evidently impressed him 
deeply. This no doubt accounted for his insistence that 
the abuses of the insane should be exposed and steps be 
taken to remove them. 

For many years the Quarantine and Health Depart- 
ments of the State and its great cities had been in bad 
repute, and the importance of correcting the abuses 
was emphasized. It was natural t*hat he should recog- 
nize the importance of a reform in municipal govern- 
ment. His own recent experience had impressed upon 
his mind very strongly the necessity for this. Perhaps 



6o RECOLLECTIONS OF 

the most distinctive recommendation made by him was 
that in favor of the enactment of a State law govern- 
ing appointments to office. He did this with such suc- 
cess that he was able to announce in his next annual 
message that New York was already in the lead in the 
inauguration of such a system. 



IV 

Maintaining the reputation he had established at Buf- 
falo, while Mayor, as a master of vetoes, he kept up this 
process in Albany. It was a change of scene, not of the 
principles upon which he carried on the business of 
government. He proceeded, in the one place as in the 
other, with deliberation, always having in view as his 
prime object the protection of the public treasury. 

In Bufifalo, in spite of his sympathy with the object, 
he had vetoed an ordinance to appropriate money to a 
Memorial Day fund ; so in Albany, he disapproved a bill 
authorizing county supervisors to erect a soldiers' 
monument. In doing so he declared: *'It is not an 
agreeable duty to refuse to give sanction to the appro- 
priation of money to such a worthy and patriotic object, 
but I cannot forget that the public money is raised by 
taxation, and with all that justifies its exaction from 
the people is the necessity of its use for a purpose con- 
nected with the safety and substantial welfare of the 
public." In closing the same message he indulged him- 
self in the legislative lecturing that had made him 
famous in Buffalo and lessons in which were to be trans- 
ferred to Washington. He expressed the hope that 
"due regard to fundamental principles and the support 



GROVER CLEVELAND 6i 

of the Constitution will prevent the passage of a bill of 
this nature in the future." 

He also vetoed bills for the amendment of charters 
when he saw that they had partizan objects behind them. 
Of one of these, which was advocated by his own party, 
and was supposed to bring it some advantages, he said : 

I believe in an open and sturdy partizanship, which secures 
the legitimate advantages of j^arty supremacy; but parties were 
made for the people, and I am unwilling, knowingly, to give 
my assent to measures purely partizan which will sacrifice or 
endanger their interests. 

Nearly every distinctive act was an emphasis of his 
doctrine that public taxes should only be levied for pub- 
lic purposes. He also insisted upon the enactment of 
laws fixing responsibility for the safe-keeping of money, 
whether public or trust funds. Upon all these ques- 
tions he showed that independence of party which dis- 
tinguished the whole of his career both before and after. 
His first Legislature was one difficult to manage. Llis 
own party, in the upper branch, was rent by division, 
and he had to face a series of political trades which had 
been made between one or other of these factions and 
the Republican members; but he went his way, paying 
little heed to these things. 



He did not escape criticism, as indeed he would have 
scarcely desired or expected to do. Perhaps the most 
valiant of these outbursts was caused by his veto of 
what was known as the bill fixing at five cents the fares 



62 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

to be charged on New York elevated railroads. It was 
a question which had been agitated for many years, and 
out of it had grown a strong feeling of opposition to 
the corporations engaged in overhead transit; but the 
Governor recognized that, while there were some abuses 
in the management of the roads, the action of the Legis- 
lature would produce great injustice and lead to prac- 
tical confiscation. After giving long and patient hear- 
ings to all parties, he made up his mind and interposed 
a strong and comprehensive veto message. His conclu- 
sions were summed up in the following paragraph : 

But we have especially in our keeping the honor and good 
faith of a great State, and we should see to it that no suspicion 
attaches, through any act of ours, to the fair fame of the 
commonwealth. The State should not only be strictly just, but 
scrupulously fair, and in all its relations to the citizen every 
legal and moral obligation should be recognized. This can 
only be done by legislating without vindictiveness or prejudice, 
and with a firm determination to deal justly and fairly with 
those from whom we exact obedience. 

That he had expected great, and perhaps permanent, 
unpopularity from this action was illustrated in an anec- 
dote told by his friends to the effect that, in the even- 
ing of the day that he had sent this message to the 
Assembly, he said: "Well, to-morrow I shall be the most 
unpopular man in the State of New York." This was, 
however, a serious mistake, and he soon had reason to 
discover that his regard for the public honor, his care 
in examining the matter in all its bearings and then in 
giving his reasons in full, had made such an impression 
upon the public mind that, instead of inviting attack, 
he had really insured commendation and defense. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 63 



VI 

In appointments to office he carried his own principles 
into practice by promoting many men who had served 
in minor places and had thus become familiar w'ith the 
duties. Thus when it came to the appointment of a 
Superintendent of Insurance, an office redolent of poli- 
tics, he chose the late John A. McCall, who had en- 
tered the office as a messenger and worked himself 
up by ability and character. Mr. Cleveland applied 
throughout the principle of choosing his appointees with 
immediate reference to fitness. 

The most important question that came before him 
was the appointment of the Railroad Commission, 
the law creating this body having been enacted by this 
the first Legislature with w^hich he had to deal. He 
exercised the greatest care in the selection of its mem- 
bers, and his choice gave general satisfaction, regard- 
less of party. He determined, as he often said after- 
ward, that he would make this body thoroughly repre- 
sentative by appointing the best men that he could find 
in the State. His care in this was justified in the same 
manner as was his appointment of the original Inter- 
state Commerce Commission during his second year as 
President. 

He came into office at a time when the conflict between 
labor and capital was perhaps sharper than at any previ- 
ous period, and he was able so to deal with this question 
as to avoid unnecessary clashing and to insure the en- 
actment of laws which were both just and conservative. 
Even here he never posed as the special friend of labor, 
a fact which was well demonstrated by his veto of the 
bill prohibiting work for more than twelve hours a day 



64 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

on the part of drivers and conductors on street railways. 
He disapproved this law on purely local grounds, but 
his reasons so commended themselves to public approval 
that even the advocates of the labor elements finally 
concluded that the law could never have been enforced, 
and many of them admitted that it would have been dan- 
gerous and impracticable legislation. 

This hurried review of his first year as Governor will 
show that he shirked nothing, did not interfere unduly 
with the course of events, took everything seriously, 
maintained fairly good relations with his party, although 
refusing to do many of the things which its leaders 
wanted, and that, in short, he swerved neither to the 
right nor the left. 



VII 

Mr. Cleveland began the year 1884 with his second 
annual message to the Legislature. If there had been 
anything like hesitation, it had now disappeared; if he 
had lacked in confidence or felt that he did not know the 
afifairs of the State so well as he ought, he was now to 
demonstrate his ability to carry out his own promises, 
in spite of all limitations, and to conduct his office as 
he saw fit. He now felt that he knew what laws the 
best interests of the State demanded, and he recom- 
mended them with the positiveness which had distin- 
guished his earlier efforts as Mayor. He also knew bet- 
ter how to manage the Legislature, so that every mo- 
ment of the intervening year had shown growth. He 
had made only a few speeches, short and to the point, 
so that he scarcely interrupted his public work for a 
moment. 

The new message reasserted the responsibility of all 



GROVER CLEVELAND 65 

in authority in the State and announced his unwavering 
determination to see that this standard was reached so 
far as he had power to promote it. He dealt especially 
with the pernicious influences which made possible so 
large a body of local legislation. He found that these 
dealt with interests which under no pretense should be 
permitted to come before a body which represented all 
the people of the State. He insisted that the powers of 
boards of supervisors and other local bodies had been 
enlarged so that they might deal with local questions, 
and he complained bitterly that bills for building bridges, 
roads, engine-houses, monuments, for establishing li- 
braries, and for the regulation and purchase of ceme- 
teries, and acts of a like character, were continually en- 
croaching upon the time of the Legislature and setting 
aside all precedents. He insisted that log-rolling was 
an inevitable incident of such a policy, and lectured the 
Legislature with his customary force — even anticipat- 
ing the plain speaking which he was soon to use with 
the Congress of the United States. 

As was his wont throughout his career, the subject 
of taxation still commanded his attention, and strict 
economy in State affairs was enjoined, so that good 
government should be furnished at the least possible 
cost. This was pronounced to be nothing but common 
honesty, the best attribute of sovereignty and the high- 
est duty to the people. Its recognition was to him a 
characteristic of beneficent government, and its failure 
or absence a sign of the oppression of tyrannical power. 

He reviewed, in some detail and with becoming pride, 
the different departments of the State for which he and 
his appointees and elective associates were responsible. 
Education, banks, insurance, National Guard, prisons, 
and the charitable institutions were all dealt with, so 

5 



(^ RECOLLECTIONS OF 

that the Legislature had an excellent opportunity to 
obtain all the information it needed. As in the previous 
year, he gave far more attention than any of his pre- 
decessors to the charitable work conducted by the State. 

The first report of the Railroad Commission, ap- 
pointed the year before, gave him an opportunity 
to review, at considerable length, the relation of the 
railroads to the people and to emphasize anew the policy 
already outlined and upon the adoption of which he had 
insisted. 

In like manner, the Civil Service Reform Law, also 
enacted as the outcome of his recommendations, was 
pronounced to have begun its work well. He also dealt 
with the actual workings of the new laws, among them 
the prohibition of political assessments; the regulation 
of primary elections ; the working of the Labor Bureau 
in the collection of information and statistics ; conserva- 
tion of the forests; revision of tax laws, dealing espe- 
cially with the evasion of taxes; the regulation of co- 
operative insurance companies ; reduction of the fees of 
receivers; the introduction of business principles into 
the construction of public buildings; and the establish- 
ment of a court of claims for the assertion of the right 
of citizens, even against the State itself, all of which 
were cited as accomplishments important enough to 
show that the interests of the State had not been neg- 
lected or overlooked. 

For the first time he referred in a public document to 
national politics, citing with approval an extract from 
de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America" which 
showed, by contrast, the great decline in our shipping 
interests, and expressing the hope that the country 
might be permitted to anticipate the time when a care 
for the public needs and the application of remedies 



GROVER CLEVELAND 67 

would take the lead in the conduct of national affairs. 
He perhaps little suspected, only a few months before 
his nomination for President, how large a scope these 
words were to have within the next fewyears. 

The legislative work was under better control by the 
Governor because of his experience during the preced- 
ing session. He was able to arrest trifling and imprac- 
ticable bills and to veto many that were bad. Among 
other measures was one taking away from the Board of 
Aldermen of New York City the power to confirm ap- 
pointments made by the Mayor. It contained many fea- 
tures of which the Governor did not approve, but he 
signed it without much hesitation and set forth, at length, 
his views as to its probable workings. By his insistence, 
other legislation relating to the city was recalled by the 
Legislature for amendment, and when this policy failed 
he used the veto without mercy. One bill that came before 
him he denounced in almost a savage way: "Of all the 
defective and shabby legislation which has been pre- 
sented to me," he said, "this is the worst and the most 
inexcusable." 

At the preceding election an amendment had been 
adopted directing the abolition of contract labor; but 
the Legislature, instead of dealing directly with the 
problem, authorized the appointment of a committee to 
investigate and report at a late day in the session. The 
Governor disapproved this bill, but, upon amendment, 
his objections were met, and it was passed. He insisted, 
however, that the State should keep faith with the 
prison contractors as well as with everybody else, and in 
his effort to procure this justice he sent in vigorous veto 
messages and memorandums. 

The Niagara Falls Reservation was created, and as 
this was something of which he had a clear knowledge. 



68 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

he promoted its enactment and tried to perfect it in every 
way it was legitimate and possible to do. 



VTII 

Toward the end of his second year as Governor his rec- 
ord had given him a strong position in the country at 
large. It became more and more clear to the Democrats 
that, if a hopeful effort was to be made in the follow- 
ing year, the support of the great body of independent 
voters in the States surrounding New York must be 
secured. This demand was increased by the distrust of 
the Republican candidate, so that these two influences 
again contributed to give unusual strength to the new 
political figure that had risen so suddenly. While the 
movement soon spread outside of New York, it was 
from that State that guidance was expected. So suc- 
cessfully was the latter given that, at the Democratic 
Convention held in Saratoga in June, 1884, for the selec- 
tion of delegates for the National Convention, Mr. 
Cleveland's friends were able to control it and to choose 
an uninstructed delegation, bound by the unit rule, as 
had always been common in New York. Thus, the full vote 
of the State was cast for Mr. Cleveland, in face of bitter 
opposition from certain elements in New York City. 

When the Convention met in Chicago on July 11, it 
was clear that Mr. Cleveland was the leading candi- 
date, although the sentiment in his favor was not so 
marked as to assure nomination. This made good 
management necessary, and, as some of the New York 
delegation waged bitter opposition to the man for whom 
they had been instructed, it was essential that no points 
should be lost. 

The Democratic National Convention of that vear 



GROVER CLEVELAND 69 

was in many respects a remarkable body, being com- 
posed, for the first time since the Civil War, almost 
wholly of the younger men of the party who had been 
brought to the front under the dominance of the Tilden 
regime. On the third day of the convention, after many 
unsuccessful efforts to postpone nominations and the 
defeat of all obstructive tactics, the first ballot resulted 
as follows : Grover Cleveland of New York, 392 ; Thomas 
F. Bayard of Delaware, 170; Allen G. Thurman of Ohio, 
98; Samuel J. Randall of Pennsylvania, 78; Joseph E. 
McDonald of Indiana, 56, with a small number dis- 
tributed among several State favorites. An adjourn- 
ment was had until the next day, when, upon the sec- 
ond ballot, 683 votes were cast for Cleveland, 81}^ for 
Bayard, 45,^/4 for Hendricks. As this number was 
more than the two-thirds necessary to nominate, Mr. 
Cleveland was declared the candidate for President, and 
Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana was associated with 
him as Vice-President. 



IX 

In the campaign of 1884 a large number of Repub- 
licans, for years inclined to independence, carried this 
policy still further by opposing the candidate of their 
party. James G. Blaine. Their numbers were recruited 
by thousands of others not usually inclined to indepen- 
dence in political action. Thus it was evident, from the 
beginning, that, unless something unforeseen occurred, 
the Democratic candidate w^ould command a large sup- 
port from those generally inimical to his party. This 
opposition was so strong in all the States east of the 
Allegheny Mountains that it made its influence felt 
everywhere. 



70 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

The campaign management on the part of the Demo- 
crats was unusually shrewd and far-seeing, while that 
of the other side was naturally much w-eakened by the 
dissensions within the party. Seldom have so many im- 
portant speeches been made by so many men w^io 
counted for something as in the campaign of 1884. It 
seemed to have in it all the elements necessary to bring 
out the strongest and most effective men. Mr. Blaine, 
himself a practised orator, had always been the idol of 
his party, and there was to be found everywhere in his 
favor a personal enthusiasm which had never been sur- 
passed in this country, except in the case of Henry Clay. 
On the other hand, the career and character of Mr. 
Cleveland represented so thoroughly the best instincts 
of the country that the cam.paign in his behalf pro- 
duced a series of striking speeches by many able men 
new to political activity. 

In addition to his letter of acceptance, Mr. Cleveland 
made only two communications to the people of the 
country, in the form of speeches, one at Newark, New 
Jersey, and the other at Bridgeport, Connecticut. Both 
were short and dealt with the question that had been 
the central point of his career and was to continue so, 
during the remainder of his life. He insisted anew 
that "the people have a right to demand that no more 
money shall be taken from them, directly or indirectly, 
for public uses than is necessary for an honest and 
economical administration of public affairs." 

The October election in Ohio, always considered a 
prophecy of the national result, was carried by the Re- 
publicans; but the old-time signs had lost their signifi- 
cance, and so at the election on Tuesday, November 4, 
Mr. Cleveland received the votes of 219 electors in 
twenty States, while Mr. Blaine had carried eighteen 



GROVER CLEVELAND 71 

States with 182 electors. Of the popular vote, the 
former had received 4,874,596 against 4,850,981 for 
the latter. In addition, something over 300,000 votes 
had been cast for the Prohibition and the Greenback 
candidates. 



Two important questions engaged the attention of the 
President-elect between November and March 4. On 
December 25 he reassured the supporters of Civil Ser- 
vice Reform in a strong letter sent to George William 
Curtis, in which he set forth his ideas of the use of 
government office as party patronage. He insisted that 
no partizan considerations would cause any relaxation 
on his part of the earnest effort to enforce the law then 
new to the statute-books. He, however, emphasized 
the fact that a large number of men holding public places 
had forfeited all just claim to retention, because they 
had used the offices for party purposes. They had done 
this, he declared, "in disregard of their duty to the 
people and because, instead of being decent public ser- 
vants, they have proved themselves offensive partizans 
and unscrupulous manipulators of local party manage- 
ment." 

The other public question upon which he pronounced 
himself, between the election and the inauguration, was 
the Bland Silver Act. Only eight days before he took 
up his Presidential duties he wrote a letter setting forth 
the alarm felt by himself and conservative men every- 
where about the dangers incident to the coinage of 
silver. He believed that it was desirable to maintain 
and continue in use the mass of gold coin, as well as 
that of the silver already coined, but that this policy 



y2 GROVER CLEVELAND 

could only be carried out by a temporary suspension of 
the act. Without exaggerating the dangers of the situa- 
tion, he recommended that compulsory coinage should be 
suspended, thus concurring in the recommendation of 
President Arthur's last annual message to Congress. 
This was his first specific utterance upon the silver prob- 
lem and fixed his position upon a question which he was 
destined to settle along the lines of his convictions. 



CHAPTER V 

ORGANIZING THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS 



IN accordance with the custom of Presidents-elect, 
Mr. Cleveland went to Washington a few days 
before the 4th of March, 1885, the day fixed by law 
for the inauguration. He was received by President 
Arthur with distinguished courtesy. Everything was 
done that could possibly contribute to the comfort of the 
new occupant of the Executive Mansion, and, as a result 
of their brief association, a pleasant friendship was 
formed between them. 

Few inaugural ceremonies have been marked with 
more of pageantry or have had in them greater genuine 
rejoicing on the part of the successful party, and, at the 
same time, more of genuine grief on the part of the 
defeated, than that which ushered Grover Cleveland into 
the Presidency. The day was in every way perfect, the 
first in the long list which finally grew to have the dis- 
tinctive name of "Cleveland weather." An elaborate 
program had been planned, and the men assigned to the 
work of handling the crowds were expert in the man- 
agement of great occasions. The military features — 
participated in by the army, the marines, the navy, and 
the artillery — were increased by detachments from the 



74 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

militia of the several States, especially from Pennsyl- 
vania. The inauguration exercises were held at the 
east front of the Capitol under conditions which were 
never better for the full success of the ceremony. 



II 

Almost every President, from the earliest days, had 
read his inaugural address. But Mr. Cleveland made a 
departure when, rising before the great audience on 
that most beautiful of March days, he delivered his ad- 
dress with the calmness and coolness which might have 
marked the professional orator, and with a dignity and 
impressiveness soon recognized in every part of the 
country. His composure and self-confidence were the 
subject of remark, and many years later one of his 
bitterest personal and political enemies said that nothing 
like it had been seen in history — the spectacle of a man 
who, with but slight experience in the larger politics, 
had been elected to the Presidency in less than three 
years after he had been only an obscure citizen in a 
small town, and yet was able thus to stand before his 
countrymen to deliver his address without a manuscript 
or word of note before him. 

Preparing every public utterance with the greatest 
care, not only as to word, phrase, and sentiment, but as 
to punctuation, he had the rare gift, with only the slight- 
est effort, of so memorizing his own writings that he 
could deliver an address of an hour in length without 
loss or change of a word. 

The address itself was pitched upon the lofty plane 
which had distinguished all his utterances. There was 
a widely prevailing fear that the change from a party 



GROVER CLEVELAND 75 

that had held uninterrupted power for twenty-four 
years, to one that had been excluded from responsibility 
during all this period, had in it some elements of dan- 
ger; so the new President came to assure his country- 
men that, although the executive branch was trans- 
ferred to new keeping, it was "still the Government of 
all the people and should be none the less an object of 
their affectionate solicitude." He was thus able to re- 
assure his countrymen, and he adjured them to renew 
their pledge of devotion to the Constitution which had 
"over almost a century borne the hopes and asj)ira- 
tions of a great people through prosperity and peace, 
and through the shock of foreign conflicts and the 
perils of domestic strife and vicissitudes." 

He set forth, at some length, the duties of a Chief 
Magistrate to the people, and the people to their Gov- 
ernment. He emphasized anew the ideas that had found 
expression in previous utterances, especially in his 
letters accepting nominations. 



Ill 

The members of the Cabinet had been chosen before 
he left Albany. Day after day and week after week 
he had asked prominent men in his party, as well as 
representatives of the independents who had come to 
his support, to visit him in Albany and discuss the 
names of the men who ought to be chosen as his official 
associates. He would not receive delegations. He 
dealt in each case with individuals, and was thereby 
enabled to procure the best and most unselfish advice. 
Coming into power as he did with a united party behind 
him, there were few jealousies to be allayed, and, tak- 



76 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

ing everything into account, the pressure upon him for 
places in the Cabinet was really slight. He felt free, 
therefore, to give to each executive office the calm and 
careful consideration which its importance deserved. 

He took with him to Washington, as his private sec- 
retary, the late Daniel S. Lamont. It would have been 
impossible to find a man better fitted for the delicate 
and important duties thus intrusted to him, and he was 
destined, within a short time, to fix a new standard for 
executive secretaries. For four years he went in and 
out before the American people, showing himself and 
proving his general acceptability, gaining the good will 
of all with whom he came into contact, and making a 
host of intimate friendships. So conspicuous was his 
success that he soon became more than a private sec- 
retary: he was a recognized part and parcel of the ad- 
ministration itself. Keen, calm, and self-collected, never 
saying more than he must, with a strong insight into 
men, he was not only an efifective secretary, but always 
the close friend of his chief. This was well attested 
by his appointment, four years later, into Mr. Cleve- 
land's second Cabinet as Secretary of War. 



IV 

Immediately after the Presidential election of 1884, 
some leading Democrats in New York concluded to ask 
the appointment into the Cabinet of a man who 
thoroughly understood the complicated conditions in 
that State. Judge Augustus Schoonmaker, of Ulster 
County, was the leader of this movement, and one day 
when he mentioned the matter to his friend, Alton B. 
Parker, then a young lawyer in the same county, the 



GROVER CLEVELAND 77 

latter said to him, "Well, why don't you head the move- 
ment in favor of the appointment of Daniel Manning 
as Postmaster-General?"— the office first suggested for 
him. 

These gentlemen went at once to Albany to put the 
movement under way. They found enthusiasm among the 
leaders of the party, but absolute discouragement on the 
part of Mr. Manning himself. However, they persevered, 
and the next move was to enlist the help of the repre- 
sentative advocates of Civil Service Reform— Judge 
Schoonmaker being a member of the Commission, then 
a new body in the State. George William Curtis, John 
Jay, and other leaders in the movement cordially sec- 
onded the efforts of Messrs. Schoonmaker and Parker, 
and, upon their return to Albany, the organizers were 
able to report real progress, and that the appointment 
of Mr. Manning would be heartily welcomed. They 
were still discouraged by the refusal of Mr. Manning 
even to consider the matter. 

When it was found that Mr. Manning was so set in 
his opposition to the movement in his ow^n behalf, an 
informal meeting was called in Albany of members of 
the Democratic State Committee and of leading men 
of the State, w^io met at a public reception given by 
Governor Hill, who had just come into office. A com- 
mittee waited upon Mr. Manning the next day, went 
over the whole matter with him fully, and insisted that, 
as for many years they had been doing whatever he 
wanted in every part of the State, it was now their turn 
and he must do something for them. In the meantime, 
Mr. Cleveland himself had become desirous that Mr. 
Manning should accept the Secretaryship of the Trea- 
sury—so that, with the united efforts of the President- 
elect, the party organization throughout the State, and 



78 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

the friends of Mr. Manning, a still reluctant consent was 
wrung from him. 

Nothing in his first administration w^as more satis- 
factory to Mr. Cleveland than the results of this appoint- 
ment. From its opening days the Treasury Department 
was in the hands of a conservative, practical man who 
knew well how to handle the di-fficult questions incident 
to the awful crush for patronage. But this was not all : 
The great policies inherent in finance and taxation, the 
more vital problems involved in the coinage issue, 
all found intelligent study and were carefully set forth 
both for the consideration of the President and the in- 
formation and the instruction of the public. Mr. Man- 
ning's first report as Secretary was often cited by his 
chief as having furnished the key to the policies after- 
w'ard enunciated on the tariff, and so successfully car- 
ried out in dealing w^ith currency and coinage problems. 

Mr. Cleveland took the step, until then almost unpre- 
cedented, of nominating two members of his original 
Cabinet from his own State, whose dominance in the 
politics of the Union and especially in his own party had 
increased rather than diminished. The other member 
chosen from New York was William C. Whitney, who 
was made Secretary of the Navy. None of his selec- 
tions more fully justified, itself than this one, and it soon 
became obvious that no man who had ever occupied that 
office had shown greater practical or executive ability. 
He was especially fitted to begin successfully the recon- 
struction of the navy on modern lines. 



Taking into account the condition of his own party in 
the Senate, Mr. Cleveland assumed a great risk in draw- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 79 

ing three men from that body. This was especially true 
of Thomas F. Bayard, and I have recorded fully in this 
volume the opinions of each other held by these two men 
thus brought into close association. 

Augustus H. Garland came to the front after the war, 
as Governor of the State of Arkansas, from which he 
passed into the Senate. Perhaps in no State had 
plunder run riot with less fear of punishment than had 
been the case in Arkansas. It was, however, practically 
the first in the South to regain full control of its own 
affairs, a success which was due to the wisdom and the 
ability of Mr. Garland, who, as its first Democratic 
Governor, grappled so successfully with the serious con- 
ditions there that he not only redeemed his own State, 
but set an example that other States were quick to follow. 

The other man transferred from the Senate to the 
Cabinet, as Secretary of the Interior, was L. Q. C. 
Lamar of Mississippi, who had borne a leading and 
honorable part in the ill-starred effort to establish the 
Confederacy, and had been sent back to the lower house 
of Congress the moment his people had regained control 
of their State. He bore himself with quiet dignity, 
taking little part in discussion until, in 1875, after the 
death of Charles Sumner, he delivered, in the House of 
Representatives, a eulogy which at once carried him to 
the front as an orator and stamped him as a man of 
large mind and distinguished ability. The transition to 
the Senate was natural and easy, and there he soon 
showed his independence by refusing to follow the in- 
structions adopted by the Legislature of his State in 
favor of the greenback and silver heresies. In every 
place he proved himself a patriotic public servant, a man 
of deep sentiment and of poetic instincts. Few men came 
closer to Mr. Cleveland, personally, than did Mr. Lamar, 



8o RECOLLECTIONS OF 

and it was with satisfaction that, in the face of many dif- 
ficulties, he appointed him as an Associate Justice of the 
Supreme Court of the United States only a year before 
the expiration of his first term as President. 



VI 

For Postmaster-General, Mr. Cleveland chose William 
F. Vilas of Wisconsin. He was a young lawyer en- 
gaged in the practice of his profession in Madison, Wis- 
consin, and little known outside his own State until, at 
a banquet given in Chicago to General Grant after his 
return from his famous tour around the world, the new 
Postmaster-General had sprung at once to the front as 
a finished orator. In 1884, he had presided over the 
National Convention which nominated Mr. Cleveland. 
A lawyer in successful practice, with whom politics 
was merely an incident, he proved himself capable of 
close and continuous attention to the detail work of the 
office intrusted to him. In 1888, when Mr. Lamar was 
appointed Justice of the Supreme Court, Mr. Vilas was 
transferred to the head of the Department of the Interior. 
William C. Endicott of Massachusetts, who had made 
a creditable record on the bench and as the candidate 
of his party for Governor of that State, became Secre- 
tary of War, and, though without experience in execu- 
tive ofiice, he met the modest demands then made upon 
this official, creditably to himself, to his administration, 
and to the country. 

VII 

The same care was used when dealing with the less 
dignified offices under the President's gift. He looked 




w u.LiA.M 1 ki-:i-;man \'i:. :■..-. 

Postmaster-Cetier.Tl and Secretary of the Interior in the first Cleveland administration 



GROVER CLEVELAND 8i 

upon the assistants to the various heads of the depart- 
ments as scarcely less important than their principals, 
and many men thus brought to the front in subor- 
dinate places soon commanded the confidence of the 
country, and many of them were destined to fill im- 
portant places in the Federal Government and in their 
own States. 

Heads of commissions and bureaus, postmasters of 
the principal cities, customs officials, were all chosen 
with special reference to fitness. While Mr. Cleve- 
land did not interfere with the functions of his 
Cabinet, all appointments for these places were made 
in consultation with them. He felt a stronger sense of 
responsibility in such cases than most men. W'itli him, 
it was an absolute necessity of the situation because of 
the long exclusion from power of his party. He fore- 
saw hostile attacks upon himself and the administration 
in case he should fill important places with the usual 
political candidates, and determined to avoid this. In 
the diplomatic service, which, during the administra- 
tion of President Arthur, had been growing better as 
to the ability and character of its members, this ten- 
dency w^as accentuated under the administration of his 
successor. 

Mr. Cleveland used to say that w^henever he felt bound 
to concede something to the demands of political man- 
agers, as he did in some States, the result was gen- 
erally unsatisfactory to himself, or the party, or the 
service, and he never hesitated to dismiss an unfit ap- 
pointee of his own with even greater promptness than 
one belonging to the rival party. He had determined to 
maintain the highest possible standard, and nothing 
could turn him from his purpose. 

I have taken occasion elsewhere in this volume to treat 

6 



82 GROVER CLEVELAND 

more fully of the type of men with whom he surrounded 
himself all along the line of official life. They soon pro- 
duced a real Cleveland Democracy which was to show 
its efficiency in later political contests, especially in the 
assertion of principle above partizanship. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE WORK OF ADMINISTRATION 



1 SHALL make no attempt to write a chronological re- 
view of the administration from 1885 to 1889. It 
will be more satisfactory to treat it topically. I am 
not attempting to write a complete biography, and am 
thus freed from the tyranny of details, I hope, how- 
ever, that a brief sketch on the lines indicated will 
furnish an idea of the principles upon which the admin- 
istration was conducted and of the success achieved. 

While assuming his own responsibility for the acts of 
his administration, Mr. Cleveland was not one to treat 
the members of his Cabinet as mere clerks. He left 
them as free as officials can be when one man must bear 
the brunt of the work as well as the blame. He had 
surrounded himself with men who did not need to be 
coached in order to comprehend and interpret the gen- 
eral principles of government which they all represented. 
They were free — developed their own plans and policies 
— and while he kept in close touch with everything that 
went on under his own administration, all worked to- 
gether for a common object. 

83 



84 RECOLLECTIONS OF 



II 

Few foreign complications arose, and these would not 
perhaps be deemed so vital and important as those under 
consideration at the present time. In accordance with 
the traditions of the country— from which, up to that 
time, there had been no departure — no attempt was made 
to exploit a foreign policy. Nobody was able to use the 
Department of State to collect money from friendly, 
though small, governments, or to settle the affairs of 
litigants or adventurers with little regard to the justice 
of their claims. Some of the latter, found in the files 
of the Department of State when Mr. Bayard took 
charge, were curtly dismissed. 

Demands for the protection of American citizens came 
from Mexico, England, and Turkey. A somewhat 
ridiculous person named Cutting was arrested for acts 
committed in this country toward Mexico, a friendly 
government, and was brought up for trial in the latter 
country. A protest from the department, really made 
against its will because of the character of the applicant, 
was effective, and the offender was released from 
custody. 

Some disagreeable complications were raised by natu- 
ralized American citizens of Irish birth, who had been 
tried under English laws. Their cases were carefully 
considered, and friendly representations made to the 
Government of Great Britain that their release would 
be agreeable to this country. It appeared, however, that 
the prisoners had not claimed protection at the time of 
arraignment and trial, so their belated claim was not 
recognized. This produced more or less misrepresenta- 



GROYER CLEVELAND 85 

tion and excitement, as was common in the old days, 
when twisting- the lion's tail was an accepted form of 
American sport, but these soon passed away, and the in- 
cidents took their place with a type then well known. 

A comprehensive treaty with China was negotiated, 
under which the latter Government agreed to meet the 
views of the United States on the prevention of further 
immigration into this country of Chinese laborers. This 
was the cause of a difference with the Senate, which, 
desiring to gain partizan advantage, had inserted insig- 
nificant amendments which the Emperor of China re- 
fused to ratify or accept. When these friendly efforts 
failed, more severe laws of exclusion were passed. 

An unusual complication arose with Austria in 1885, 
growing out of the sending to that country, as Minis- 
ter, of a Virginian by the name of Kieley. It developed 
that, at a public meeting held in 1870, he had made a 
violent speech against Victor Emmanuel, so that, when ac- 
credited to Italy, that Government refused to receive 
him. The new complication arose upon an attempt to 
provide for him in Austria. He had married a woman 
of Jewish birth, and as the anti-Semitic agitation was 
then at its w^orst in all German-speaking countries, the 
Austrian Government made his withdrawal from Rome 
a pretext for refusing to receive him in Vienna. No 
other reasons being available, the fact that his wife be- 
longed to the race then persecuted was alleged. The 
Austrian Minister represented to the Secretary of State 
and the President that no Jewess could be received in 
social circles in Vienna, so that her husband could not 
be persona grata in that court. In rebuke to the bigotry 
which suggested such a course, Mr. Bayard announced 
that the United States would never recognize such tests, 
and his despatch in the defense of American toleration 



86 RECOLLECTIONS OF .4 

and in condemnation of race prejudice has seldom been 
excelled in our diplomatic correspondence for careful 
writing, sound views, and loftiness of thought. The 
President, in his first annual message, also took the 
same line and added a spirited rebuke to the action of 
Austria. 

In 1886, Mr. Phelps, Minister to England, concluded 
a treaty providing for the extradition of criminals who 
should escape from the jurisdiction of one country into 
that of another. \Mien the treaty came from the Senate 
Committee on Foreign Affairs, it contained certain 
offensive words about the use of explosives and was 
generally resented. Considerable excitement arose from 
the incident, and the charge was made that the original 
document had contained this language; but not until 
after the election of 1888 was the discovery made that 
the offending words had been inserted by the committee 
itself. 

An earnest effort was made to settle the fisheries dif- 
ficulties by treaty, but the contest with the Senate was 
too violent to permit that body to accept anything which 
would serve to give the new Democratic administration 
credit in the country. 



Ill 

When Mr. Manning took charge of the Treasury De- 
partment on March 6, 1885, he found two great and 
threatening perils. Most of the debt then due had been 
paid. As revenue laws which collected a surplus were 
in effect, nearly a hundred million dollars beyond the 
demands of legitimate expenditures were drawn yearly 
from the people. In like manner, all attempts to get 
silver into circulation had failed, so that it was heaped 



V GROVER CLEVELAND 87 

up in the vaults of the Treasury, where it was idle and 
useless. 

It was impossible to procure from Congress laws re- 
ducing the revenues, so that, early in 1887, the continued 
drain of money from the people and the opposite policy 
of locking up the newly coined silver together consti- 
tuted a serious menace to business interests. The Sec- 
retary of the Treasury, Charles S. Fairchild, who had 
succeeded Mr. Manning upon his retirement because of 
ill heahh, determined that, instead of distributing over 
the whole fiscal year bond purchases from the sinking 
fund, he would invest, as rapidly as possible, and at once, 
the entire amount available. Nearly twenty-eight mil- 
lion dollars were at once invested in the bonds of the 
Government. The new policy was successful, and, as 
the threatened danger was averted, it was pursued in 
the succeeding year, many of the bonds being bought 
direct from owners instead of through banks or syndi- 
cates. These various devices made large savings in 
interest. 

Their effect, however, was temporary, and, that the 
surplus might not be hoarded in the Treasury, a deci- 
sion was reached to increase the deposits in the national 
banks. This policy was so encouraging that these de- 
posits were almost quintupled in a single year, and nearly 
three times as many banks participated in the distribu- 
tion of Treasury funds. The money was distributed 
fairly, with no favoritism and without relation to the 
politics of the managers of the financial institutions 
involved. It thus found its way into every part of the 
country and did much to promote healthful business 
development. The silver question was so dealt with 
that the dangers to business were reduced to a minimum. 
This was effected, in a large measure, by the withdrawal 



88 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

of the small denominations of Treasury notes and the 
issue in their stead of silver certificates. 

The reduction of the public debt went steadily forward, 
the yearly amount being increased considerably over the 
average of the previous administration. In like manner, 
there was a constant and wholesome decline in the cost 
of collecting revenue. In 1885 the average was 3.77 
per cent., and this was reduced until, in 1888, it was only 
3.20. These reductions were made possible by eHmi- 
nating useless offices and the adoption of business 
methods. 

In like manner, unnecessary expenditures were cut 
off, and the increase in the number of employees did not 
keep pace with the growth of business. At the same 
time, careful plans were worked out by both Mr. Man- 
ning and Mr. Fairchild, insuring efficiency in the routine 
work of the department. Exorbitant allowances and 
salaries were reduced, unnecessary bureaus abolished 
or consolidated, and the department conducted with 
much economy. 

IV 

One policy to which Mr. Cleveland early devoted his 
attention was the reconstruction of the navy. Between 
the time of the election and the inauguration, an effort 
was made, with small success, to interest Mr. Cleve- 
land in the scheme for coast fortifications, and his 
attitude upon this question doubtless confirmed his 
determination to reconstruct the navy on large, com- 
prehensive lines. 

It is, indeed, an oft-told tale, that of the degradation 
of the United States Navy during the period between 
1865 and 1885. In his first annual report as Secretary 



GROVER CLEVELAND 89 

of the Navy, in December of the latter year, W illiam C. 
Whitney said: 

The country has expended since July i, 1868, over seventy- 
five millions of money on the construction, repair, equipment, 
and ordnance of vessels, which sum, with a very slight excep- 
tion, has been substantially thrown away, the exception being 
a few ships now in process of construction. . . . For about 
seventy of the seventy-five millions expended by the depart- 
ment for the creation of a navy, we have nothing to show. 

When Mr. Whitney took charge of the department 
in March, 1885, the United States did not have a war- 
vessel which could have kept the seas for a week, while 
the country was dependent upon foreign manufacturers 
for gun forgings, armor, and secondary batteries. The 
President and his Naval Secretary determined to encour- 
age the home manufacture of armor. In order to pro- 
mote this object, the policy was adopted in 1886 of con- 
solidating into a single contract all the armor authorized 
by Congress. Bidders were allowed the time necessary 
to erect the buildings, machinery, and plant for mak- 
ing and handling thi^s new product, with the effect that, 
two years later, a contract was entered into with the 
Bethlehem Iron Company providing for the production 
of armor and gun steel. From that time, the Govern- 
ment of the United States has been in an independent 
position, able to construct vessels built entirely from ma- 
terial, labor, and capital drawn from its own people. 

It was not alone in the building of new vessels 
and the adoption of new methods that an advance was 
made. The management of the department in all its 
details was revolutionized. This was reached by the re- 
organization of bureaus and the choice of efficient and 
honest men. The purchase of supplies was consolidated 



90 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

under a responsible chief, so that, instead of more than 
fifty per cent, of the suppHes being purchased in the open 
market, as under the old policy, the proportion declined 
until, at the close of the Cleveland administration, it had 
been reduced to less than eleven per cent. These im- 
provements, even with new vessels built and others under 
way, and provision made for armor and guns, had en- 
abled the cost of the department to be reduced. 

In devising and carrying out these policies, Mr. Cleve- 
land was powerfully assisted by his Secretary of the 
Navy. Perhaps no more fortunate choice was ever 
made for the head of a department in a period of emer- 
gency. With commanding abilities, a careful training 
as a lawyer, an expert knowledge of politics and of men, 
and strongly devoted to whatever he undertook, he was 
able from the beginning to command Mr. Cleveland's 
hearty support. He thus had an unusually free hand 
not only in the initiation of policies, but in routine man- 
agement. He began at once to eliminate abuses, but his 
principal work was positive : the building of a new navy 
on the very best lines then known. 

How fully he commanded Mr. Cleveland's support 
was always shown by the latter's uniform recognition 
of his abilities and devotion. He often repeated the 
opinion that he had never known a man with Mr. Whit- 
ney's capacity for work. He was not a man to use his 
powers in the plodding way that distinguished his chief, 
but the latter always insisted that, of all the men he had 
ever known, there was none with such a gift for con- 
centrating attention upon any large matter upon which 
he might be engaged at a given time. He told me that 
there would sometimes be weeks in which, to outward 
appearances, Mr. W^hitney would seem to be dawdling— 
although in fact this was not the case. The President, 



GROVER CLEVELAND 91 

with his steady methods, would have the feeliniE^ that 
when a pohcy requiring the closest attention of the ordi- 
nary man for many weeks was to he executed, everyhody 
ought to be working to his full bent. 

Even then the Secretary would delay the task in- 
trusted to him. But, in good and sufficient time, before a 
decision must be reached, he would put everything else 
aside and throw himself into his task. "I always knew," 
Mr. Cleveland remarked, "that, when he did this, he 
could accomplish more in one day than any other man 
that I ever saw could do in ten. Every power of his 
mind would be concentrated upon the present duty. 
Social life, personal business — all were sacrificed, so 
that he would be fully ready. I have never known any- 
thing approaching this power of absorption, and I say 
this in spite of the fact that I have always been thrown 
into contact with lawyers who, in dealing with important 
cases, have developed this capacity in a striking way." 

Illustration of Mr. Whitney's power of concentration 
is afforded by an anecdote which used to be told in Wash- 
ington to the effect that, after the policy of naval con- 
struction had been adopted, it became plain that the head 
of one of the principal bureaus had no conception of 
the responsibility incumbent upon him. As he held of- 
fice for a fixed term, there was no way under the law 
to get rid of him, so INIr. Whitney conceived the idea that 
he must convince the man of his own incompetence. 
Having reached this conclusion, he took up the study 
of modern naval construction, and mastered the details 
of every new vessel then in existence, including plans, 
structure, armor, machinery, power, and operation. 

This done, he sent for the official and began to cross- 
examine him about the conditions with which he would 
be called to deal. Each new question showed the Sec- 



92 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

retary's knowledge, and each answer revealed the other 
man's ignorance. This process was continued merci- 
lessly until, when Mr, Whitney finally asked an opinion 
on certain features of a new British vessel named, the 
other broke down, owned his incapacity, and tendered 
his resignation. 

It was through this devotion to his duties, this un- 
precedented ability for details, that Mr. Whitney was 
able, in this case as in others, to clear obstacles from 
his path and to become the real creator of our new navy. 



Even in the War Department, which presented few 
opportunities to make a show or even to display large 
executive ability, a good deal of work was well done. 
Early in the administration, upon the initiative of the 
President, a determination was reached to break up the 
favoritism which had for so long made that department 
a nest of petty intrigue, through which officers were ac- 
customed to obtain assignments to soft places. Under 
the new regime, these were sent back to their regiments. 
By reason of the growth of the Western Territories 
and the success of the peaceful policy so consistently 
carried out by Mr. Cleveland and his predecessor, there 
was little Indian fighting for the regular army. Its 
condition and discipline were, however, constantly im- 
proved because it was conducted on business principles. 
There is no doubt that the system, then established, of 
increasing the discipline of the force had a decided in- 
fluence in the war that came, greatly to Mr. Cleveland's 
regret, after his final retirement from office. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 93 



VI 



The Department of Justice was conducted with little 
noise or bluster, but with efficiency. In addition to the 
Attorney-General, the Solicitor-General, the late George 
A. Jenks of Pennsylvania — upon whom most of the work 
devolved — achieved a large degree of success both in the 
courts and in executive management. The President, 
being a lawyer of wide training and recognized position, 
conscientiously devoted to his profession, gave much 
more attention than was usual with an executive to all 
questions of a legal character. This was made impera- 
tive by the fact that Congress had then recently enacted 
many laws imposing additional work upon this depart- 
ment, so that the number of criminal prosecutions was 
increased by about one third over a like period in the 
preceding administration. This was also done at a 
small expense considering the increased work. The 
laws were strictly enforced, and no serious scandal at- 
tached itself to any of the principal officers of the De- 
partment of Justice. 

Upon the death of Chief Justice Waite, the Presi- 
dent appointed as his successor Melville W. Fuller, one 
of the leaders of his profession in the West. His suc- 
cess has fully justified Mr. Cleveland's confidence. In 
like manner, L. Q. C. Lamar, then Secretary of the 
Interior, was appointed an Associate Justice. One cir- 
cuit judge and eleven district judges were chosen, and 
as the President always gave greater attention to ap- 
pointments dealing with the machinery of the law than 
to any other department of like size, the far-reaching 
effects of his policy have been fully justified by the ex- 
perience of a quarter of a century. 



94 RECOLLECTIONS OF 



VII 

When Mr. Cleveland came into power the Post-Office 
was growing with great rapidity. It had already be- 
come an immense establishment demanding high admin- 
istrative talent if it was to keep itself in touch wnth the 
growth of the country. In 1883 the letter-postage rate 
was reduced from three cents to two, and the weight 
limit raised from half an ounce to an ounce. During 
that and the following years marked reductions were 
made in the rates on matter of the second class — news- 
papers and periodicals sent direct from the office of pub- 
lication — and further concessions had been granted in 
other classes of mail, both as to rate and conditions. 
Probably as the result of these, as well as from the 
growth of the country and from the increase in the 
weight to be carried, the work of transporting and 
handling them had grown at an unprecedented rate. 
The business methods upon which Mr. Cleveland always 
insisted made it possible to conduct this augmented ser- 
vice without any greatly increased expenditure. De- 
spite the new privileges allowed by law, each dollar in 
receipts by the Post-Office Department cost only $1.06 
in. 1 888 against $1.17 in 1885. 

A decided saving in mail transportation was efifected 
— made possible by economies in star route, steamboat, 
and railroad charges, by a readjustment of the pay of 
land-grant roads and the adoption of business methods 
in the purchase of equipment. These improvements 
were accompanied by more mail-trains of greater speed ; 
new parcels post contracts were concluded with Mexico 
and other American countries; the free delivery ser- 
vice was enlarged; the money-order system was ex- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 95 

tended to new classes of offices, and improved methods 
were devised all along the line. No scandals were devel- 
oped, and the serious abuses that had grown up in the 
service in previous years were eliminated. 



VIII 

The Interior Department had long been a sort of 
omnium-gatherum for out-of-the-way public govern- 
ment work for which no other place seemed to have been 
provided. This made it perhaps the most difficult de- 
partment in the Government, and it was very fortunate 
that it fell into the hands of a man of such a keen and 
unremitting industry and capacity for detail as William 
F. Vilas. 

For years there had been a growing demand that the 
small area of public lands then remaining should be 
conserved for actual settlers. In spite of the fact, few 
steps had been taken to wrest from the land-grant roads 
great areas which, though granted, had not been earned. 
When the new administration came into office it found 
tracts of this kind amounting to millions of acres tied 
up with claims by railroads, and still others used as pas- 
tures for the herds and flocks of ranchmen — illegally 
surrounded by fences. Such energy was shown in 
eliminating the latter abuse that at the end of the sec- 
ond year steps had been taken which finally led to the 
correction of the evil. 

In like manner, areas aggregating something more 
than a hundred million acres were restored to settle- 
ment. In this work the President himself showed the 
deepest interest. In his first annual message he re- 
viewed the origin of the public domain, and emphasized 



96 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

anew the fact that the lands were originally granted by 
the States and that they were "encumbered with no con- 
dition except that they should be held and used 'for the 
benefit of the United States.' " He insisted that the 
other lands acquired by purchase were subject to the 
same conditions, and expressed the opinion that "the 
policy of many homes rather than large estates was 
adopted by the Government" in the execution of this 
trust. The whole policy was well summed up in the 
following extract from the message just quoted: 

It is not for the benefit of the United States that a large 
area of public land should be acquired, directly or through 
fraud, in the hands of a single individual. The nation's 
strength is in the people ; the nation's prosperity is in their 
prosperity; the nation's glory is in the equality of her justice; 
the nation's perpetuity is in the patriotism of all her people. 
Hence, as far as practicable, the plan adopted in the disposal 
of the public lands should have in view the original policy, 
which encouraged many purchasers of these lands for homes 
and discouraged the massing of large areas. 

In no question that came before him did the Presi- 
dent show himself more deeply interested or more cour- 
ageous than in the dealings of the Government with its 
Indian wards. Believing in fair and kind but firm 
treatment and in the use of civilizing influences, he 
studied the question attentively from the earliest days 
of his administration. He chose his agents in every 
line of this work with perhaps more care, if possible, 
than that bestowed upon any other department. He 
and the Secretary of the Interior worked faithfully to 
abolish favoritism in appointments, and, among other 
abuses, nepotism was strictly forbidden. 

This, like every other work, was done at a diminished 



GROVER CLEVELAND 97 

cost. It was a natural result of a policy in which hon- 
esty and business principles were consistently and 
firmly applied to the management of Indian affairs. 
The improvement in this branch of the public service, 
as in that of many others, dated from the first Cleve- 
land administration. 

An illuminating chapter in Mr. Cleveland's published 
"Writings and Speeches" is that which presents in con- 
nected form his views on the Indian question. When- 
ever he found that misapprehensions existed as to the 
policy of the department, he made it his business to write 
letters explaining it, thus not only showing his interest 
in the subject and the knowledge he had gained of it, 
but setting forth the principles upon which he had con- 
ducted this branch of the public business. So well sat- 
isfi-ed was he with his work that, in his fourth annual 
message in December, 1888, he could declare that "proofs 
multiply that the transforming change, so much' to be de- 
sired, which shall substitute for barbarism education and 
civilizing sentiment, is in favorable progress." 



IX 

The Department of Agriculture had long been a bureau 
which evoked a smile when mentioned. As Mr. Cleve- 
land, from early association, as well as from lifelong 
experience, had been interested in farming, he chose as 
Commissioner Norman J. Colman of Missouri, who was 
peculiarly fitted for the duties intrusted to him. He 
was a practical farmer and, in addition, had for many 
years conducted one of the most successful newspapers 
devoted to the agricultural interest. 

He began by forming and cementing close, systematic 



98 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

relations between his department and the agricultural 
colleges and experiment stations endowed and main- 
tained by Congress. This was effected by a conference 
between himself and his staff and the leading men con- 
nected with these institutions. A policy was then 
mapped out which had, for its general purpose, work on 
some system, the prevention of duplication, the ex- 
change of results, and the establishment of additional 
stations. He began and carried out a careful investiga- 
tion of adulterations and imitations — a policy which has 
had ample results in laws since enacted. In like man- 
ner, he took vigorous measures to stamp out the 
contagious diseases of cattle, and conducted various ex- 
periments which have promoted a great increase in the 
production of raw sugar. 



X 

It does not fall within the purview of this sketch to 
deal with all the policies ■ of the first administration. 
Mention may be made, however, of the contest with the 
Senate over the Tenure of Office Act, which, the Presi- 
dent insisted, had fallen into "innocuous desuetude." 
This message is among the most vigorous of his public 
utterances. In it he met the Senate upon its own 
ground, setting forth distinctly the questions at issue 
between the Executive and that body, and positively 
refusing to comply with the demand for the surrender 
of letters or documents of a private nature. After the 
receipt of the message, the discovery was made that 
public sentiment was strongly with the President, and 
the contest ended with complete success, so that he w^as 
no longer hampered in the matter of appointments. Mr. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 99 

Cleveland dealt very fully with this question in one of 
his lectures at Princeton University, published in his 
book on "Presidential Problems."^ It well deserves 
study by those interested in the large questions of gov- 
ernment. It is an interesting fact that a successor, 
William H. Taft, in his commemorative address (March 
18, 1909), pronounced this one of the most important 
of the services rendered to the country by Mr. Cleveland. 

Few acts of the first administration attracted wider 
attention than Mr. Cleveland's attitude upon military 
pensions. From the beginning he insisted that the pen- 
sion list should be made and kept "a roll of honor." As- 
surance of merit on the part of the beneficiary, and not 
the liberality of the Government, w^hich, because it could 
collect the money, might be lavish, was with him the 
test. Consequently, he vetoed private pension bills to 
the number of more than two hundred and fifty, insist- 
ing, over and over again, that pensions should only be 
granted under general laws. This would discourage 
favoritism and so fix the position of the soldier that he 
could command a pension as a right to himself and not 
as a favor. 

He vetoed the Dependent Pension Bill because, in 
his view, it made many of the proposed beneficiaries 
objects of charity. While recognizing to the fullest 
extent the gratitude due to the soldiers of the Union and 
manifesting a desire, at every turn, to promote their in- 
terests, he endeavored to protect them from themselves 
as well as from their enemies. He saw that the pen- 
sion system had become full of abuses, and recognized, 
w^hat has been since admitted, that the bounty of the 
Government had been paid to men who did not deserve 

^Presidential Problems, by Grover Cleveland. New York, the Century 
Company, 1904. 



lOO RECOLLECTIONS OF 

or need it. He further insisted that the demand for 
additional pension legislation — more than a quarter of 
a century after the close of the Civil War — was largely 
artificial, and that it was promoted by a systematic agi- 
tation on the part of organizations of pension agents 
and attorneys. 

In another chapter I have treated at some length Mr. 
Cleveland's attitude toward Civil Service Reform. He 
came into office under difficult conditions. For a quar- 
ter of a century the public service had been under the 
merciless application of the spoils system. None but 
members of the majority party had had a chance to 
obtain important employment in the public service. It 
was requisite to the success of the law, passed in 1882, 
that it should have friendly but prudent administration. 

When he entered office in 1885, he found that less 
than fourteen thousand employees had passed under the 
protection of the rules, of whom perhaps no more than 
ten per cent, had been chosen under the new law or as 
the result of recognized merit. When he left office at 
the end of four years more than twenty-seven thousand 
persons were included in the classified service. He car- 
ried on this work with such consistency that history, 
when finally written, must accord him the credit of giv- 
ing the system a fair trial. He extended its operations 
into many new departments and afforded an opportunity 
to many men then excluded from the public service. 

No act of Mr. Cleveland's first administration was 
more popular than his marriage on June 2, 1886, to Miss 
Frances Folsom of Buffalo. He thus introduced into 
social life a woman who, though young,. has never made 
a mistake in her dealings with her countrymen. At- 
tractive in character as in person, domestic in her tastes, 
devoted to her home, she has shown at every step the 




I li> r M Krll Slu.lic, \V.ulim|;tc.n. 1). C. 

FRANCES I OLSOM 
From a photograph taken at the time of her marriage to Grover Cleveland 



GROVER CLEVELAND loi 

highest capabilities of American womanhood. No pub- 
lic man in all our history ever had a happier domestic 
life than that which Mr. Cleveland enjoyed as the result 
of this marriage. Both in and out of office they lived 
plainly and simply, going about their own concerns so 
far as public duties would permit, and free from any 
tendency to display or ostentation. 



XI 

During the years 1886 and 1887 ^^^ President made a 
considerable tour of the country. Taking a well- 
appointed train and accompanied by his wife and sec- 
retary and a few friends, they started West, making 
Indianapolis their first stop. They were greeted al- 
ways in the most cordial way. The same scenes were 
witnessed, as to hospitality and enthusiasm, in Chicago, 
Milwaukee, Madison, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Omaha, St. 
Louis, Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, and 
Montgomery, from which city they returned home. He 
was met everywhere by delegations and, when time per- 
mitted, he generally made a short, apt speech, and gave 
popular receptions to which all who desired might come. 
Until he reached Montgomery, Alabama, his last stop, 
he sedulously avoided politics or public questions. As 
he saw in the South signs of a restored Union and recog- 
nized, in a more emphatic way than had been possible 
earlier, that sectionalism was no longer a force, he felt 
free to advert to the value of profitable business rela- 
tions and to express his opinion that in no part of the 
country would the people willingly permit these to be de- 
stroyed or endangered by designing demagogues. He 
condemned, in unsparing terms, the wickedness of those 



I02 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

partizans who seek to aid their ambitious schemes by 
engendering hate among a generous people. 

The President's bearing on this extended journey, the 
ease and dignity with w^iich he met his countrymen, 
his interest in local development, and the impressions 
gathered of a restored and united country, increased his 
own familiarity with the needs of the country, promoted 
his popularity, and helped to complete the harmony of 
the sections so long divided, first by civil war, and, later, 
as the result of misgovernment and the acts of interested 
partizans. 

He was a conspicuous figure at the centennial of the 
adoption of the Constitution in Philadelphia in Septem- 
ber, 1887, making three speeches in his one dTiy's visit 
there. At all times he showed much interest in the uni- 
versal evidence of industrial progress. 

Mr. Cleveland made speeches on many questions dur- 
ing his term of office, more indeed than many of his pre- 
decessors. These speeches dealt with a variety of sub- 
jects and with nearly all the elements in our population. 
They were always serious, short, pointed, and bright, 
evincing an intimate knowledge of the questions dis- 
cussed and a willingness to aid every good cause. Nat- 
urally averse to speech-making and to show, no man 
could have submitted with better grace to the ordeal. 



XII 

Reference has already been made to the burdens which 
the revenue laws imposed upon business by exacting 
great sums beyond the needs of the Government. From 
the earliest days of the administration and even from 
those of President Arthur, these were recognized as 



GROVER CLEVELAND 103 

serious menaces to prosperity. In his first annual 
message the President announced this fact and urged 
the necessity of revising the tariff laws downward. 
His reference was brief, not because of a lack of in- 
terest in the question, which later he was to force so 
decisively to the front, but because other issues seemed 
to him dominant. 

In his annual message of 1886 he gave still greater 
attention to the tariff, and nothing that he wrote upon 
it was stronger or more pertinent, or better showed his 
knowledge of the question, or set forth his conception 
of the dangers incident to the perpetuation of war taxes 
in times of peace. 

During the spring and summer of 1887, the surplus 
in the Treasury became a menace to the prosperity and 
stability of the country, and he felt that the time had 
come when a way of escape must be provided. Through- 
out this period he and the Secretary of the Treasury 
were in daily dread of commercial disaster, so that they 
were compelled to consider, with even more care than 
before, the ways and means necessary for removing the 
causes. The conclusion was reached that the only way 
was to reduce the exorbitant taxes which had produced 
this plethora. 

He, therefore, determined to devote the whole of his 
annual message of 1887 to the discussion of the tariff 
question. He always insisted that only in this way 
could the attention of the country be drawn to existing 
evils and the necessity for a change be enforced. He 
showed a clear knowledge of the question, and the cour- 
age which prompted his message, and the patriotism re- 
vealed in every line, aj)pealed to the imagination of the 
country with a power seldom surpassed by a Presidential 
messacre. 



104 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

It would be difficult to overestimate its effect. It 
at once lifted politics out of the ruts into which it had 
fallen and gave the country something real to think 
about. From that time forward, fiscal questions had a 
standing and could more easily command public inter- 
est. It was no longer complained that a speech on the 
tariff was dull or that an exposition of the financial con- 
dition of the country was necessarily stupid. It is 
probable that no document of the same length ever had 
had so wide a reading. It made no pretense of reveal- 
ing something new, but it massed the then existing 
facts, showed the courage of his opinion, and his con- 
viction of the peril into w-hich the country had been 
drawn by adherence to a dangerous policy. Far beyond 
these, and more important than any other consideration, 
it showed that the writer was willing to stake his po- 
litical fortunes upon the enunciation of this policy. 

Mr. Cleveland referred often to the criticism that he 
had delayed this message. In reply he insisted that if 
he had announced this policy earlier the country would 
not have been prepared for it. When it came it was really 
timely, because needed, and he was wholly clear of the 
charge that he was trying to create unnecessary alarm. 
While conditions were bad enough in 1885 and 1886, 
there was little to indicate that the finances of the coun- 
try were suffering from a single abuse and no more. 
He said that he had been so engaged in readjusting 
the executive departments of the Government that he 
was compelled to gain the confidence of the country 
before announcing a great and overmastering policy. 

When the defeat of 1888 came he was not surprised. 
When preparing his last annual message for the meet- 
ing of Congress in December, 1888, he sent for the 
Speaker of the House, Mr. Carlisle, to consult with him 



GROVER CLEVELAND 105 

concerning" his attitude upon the tariff question. Mr. 
Carlisle told me, in 1890, that in opening- the conversa- 
tion the President said by way of preface : 

I have asked you to call and see me, Mr. Speaker, 
in order that I may get your views about that portion 
of my message which deals with the tariff question. 
You know that I have always been willing and 
anxious to consult the wishes of the leaders of my 
party on every public question; that I have tried to 
show that deference to their desires that their posi- 
tion demanded, and so far as it was consonant with 
the interest of the country, but I want to tell you 
now that if every other man in the country abandons 
this issue I shall stick to it. 

The policy announced in 1887 and newly emphasized 
in 1888 was to find partial vindication in the Congres- 
sional elections of 1890 and full fruition, so far as party 
initiative was involved, in the Presidential campaign of 
1892. 

The administration, the history of which has been so 
briefly outlined that I have touched only upon the salient 
features distinctive of the man, was clean, vigorous, 
devoted to the rights and interests of the people, and 
devoid of appeals to prejudice or partizanship. It main- 
tained at their best the century-old traditions of our in- 
stitutions and Government, and in dignity, earnestness, 
and character was an example for coming generations. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1 888 



A FEW days before the Fourth of July, 1888, I re- 
ceived, at my home in New York, a telegram from 
Colonel Daniel S. Lamont, private secretary to 
the President, asking me to report to him at the Execu- 
tive Mansion in Washington on the following day, to 
take up the work of preparing the Campaign Text- 
Book of the Democratic Party. On hand at the time 
fixed, I found that the secretary's idea was vague; but 
it was arranged that I should go back to New York, 
make my plans, and return to Washington on the fol- 
lowing Monday, ready to take up my task. He was 
to procure convenient offices in the town, and to ar- 
range for the assistants, secretaries, and clerical staff. 
Early in the day fixed, I reported for duty, and asked 
for information about the office which I was to occupy 
during the next few weeks. "Oh, I have not been able," 
he said, "to get one convenient to the Executive Man- 
sion and so have concluded to have you work here." 

Thereupon I was assigned to the large and con- 
venient bedroom over the portico, from whose window 
I could look out upon the busy scenes which, in those 
days, were far more interesting than now, when the 



GROVER CLEVELAND 107 

President, so far as his daily tasks are concerned, has 
become the head of a government department or a keen 
business man. surrounded by all the paraphernalia of 
trade. The uni(|ue surroundings were interesting, but 
all my dreams about assistants and staff were dissi- 
pated. One man might be intrusted with the most deli- 
cate of party tasks and execute it next door to the work- 
room of the President of the United States, but this 
could not include the miscellaneous collection of per- 
sons who must enter into the make-up of a staff. 
Hence I took up alone the allotted task, and carried it 
through without the aid of so much as a copyist, or even 
of a stenographer to conduct the most formal of corre- 
spondence. 



II 

The scheme, as submitted to Colonel Lamont and ap- 
proved, involved the presentation — as completely as the 
time available permitted — of the history of the admin- 
istration then near its close and of the personality, then 
little understood, that lay behind it. The compilation 
was to be completed by the first of September, the proofs 
read, and the book ready for distribution. It was nec- 
essary to compile a complete history of every depart- 
ment and independent bureau or division in order to show 
what it had done and wherein it had adopted improved 
methods and so corrected abuses. In doing this, it was 
necessary to see every head of a department, or of 
bureaus and divisions like the Pensions, the Public 
Printing, and others which were carrying out, inde- 
pendently, policies which fitted into the general scheme 
of administration. 



io8 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

I had already a personal acquaintance with the head 
of every department except the navy and with many 
independent officials. Elaborate credentials were not 
necessary. When needed, they were furnished by the 
following note, without date, written in pencil on a small, 
narrow envelop : 

Executive Mansion. 

I hope it will be possible to see Mr. Parker for one mo- 
ment as early as possible. 

D. S. Lamont. 

Wherever duty might call me, and I was myself un- 
known, this was an open sesame. I had only to explain 
what was wanted, to give directions, and the gathering 
of the necessary information was put under way. Within 
a week probably a hundred men were devoting their 
mornings and nights to the work in hand. These had 
to be visited from time to time in order to give new in- 
structions, to oversee the work, to suggest revision or 
addition to matter as it was submitted, to hurry up the 
laggard or the neglectful— in fact, to supervise by day 
the execution of the whole scheme, and then at night 
to edit the resulting material into system and coher- 
ence. With all, it soon became necessary to meet the 
daily demands of the printer in Baltimore. 



Ill 

My acquaintance with members of Congress, in both 
Houses, was nothing like so comprehensive as it was 
in the executive departments: however, as it was 
necessary to obtain information in that -quarter, my 
authority was derived from the following open note, 
also undated and written on a card, to the distinguished 




COLONEL DANIEL S. LAMONT 
Private Secretary to I'rcsident Cleveland during his first adniinisttation and 
Secretarv of War in his second Cabinet 



GROVER CLEVELAND 109 

statesman then Chairman of the Naval Committee of 
the House, later Secretary of the Navy: 

Navy Department, 
Washington. 
To Hon. H. A. Herbert, 

No. I B Street, N. W. 
Introducing Mr. Parker upon confidential business. 

W. C. Whitney. 

This served in both Houses of Congress as its prede- 
cessor had done in department, bureau, and division. 



IV 

It may well be believed that this w^ork demanded both 
devotion and industry. Through those hot weeks of 
July and August it went forward at varying rates of 
speed, all of them too slow for personal satisfaction, 
until Colonel Lamont, to whom I reported progress — 
late at night, perhaps twice a week — feared lest he had 
put too much upon me, or had been remiss in not giving 
me more help. I saw the end from the beginning, 
recognizing that it was merely a matter of perseverance 
and patience, and that, with these, I should meet the de- 
mands upon me. 

I could not have had a better exemplar of these quali- 
ties than that in the room next mine immediately across 
the hall. I soon found myself leaving for my lodgings 
in the town at about one o'clock in the morning — always 
with an unfinished task. 

Gasping for air, in an oppressive atmosphere, when 
I would step into the hall, during the hours around mid- 
night, in the hope, generally futile, of catching some 
stray breath of air, it so happened once that, as I looked 



no X RECOLLECTIONS OF 

across the hall to the half-open door turned toward 
mine, I saw, reflected upon its polished surface, the hand 
of a man biisily writing. 

I knew that this door opened into the workroom of 
Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, whom 
I had not seen since taking up my hard task inside his 
official residence. So the habit was formed, when I 
went early to my daily task, of asking the watchman 
at what hour the President had knocked off the pre- 
ceding night. I found that it was generally about three 
o'clock in the morning; now and then, when he had 
finished some severe task that he had set himself, he 
would stop at two o'clock. My only personal know- 
ledge, of course, was, in general, up to one o'clock. I 
did keep at it, once or twice, until two, in the hope that 
I might rival the man next door, of whose greediness 
for work I had heard and of which I now had abundant 
knowledge. But as the necessity for rest was strong, 
I gave up the competition and kept my own hours and 
not those of another. 



I COULD but wonder what it was that a man holding 
the dignified office of President was doing at such hours 
of the night after he had given a full day to the duties 
incident to his office. I soon learned that before nine 
o'clock this marvel of diligence had risen, dressed, 
breakfasted, and was at his desk, devoting the early 
hours to correspondence or to business with his secre- 
tary. Often he had invited some one to breakfast with 
him in order to discuss some urgent or left-over matter 
of public concern. 

When Congress was in session — it sat late in the 



GROVER CLEVELAND iii 

year in question — the Senators and Representatives had 
the right of access to the President between the hours 
of ten and twelve, except on the regular Cabinet days, 
Tuesdays and Fridays. He must then listen to mis- 
cellaneous appeals, generally for favors of some kind, 
or to party advice, or to remonstrances for some act or 
refusal to act ; incidentallv, he would often consider the 
details of that business in which the executive and legis- 
lative branches of the Government had a common 
interest. 

These hours included the visits, with their Senators 
and Representatives, of almost numberless callers, some, 
though not many, bent on real public business, more on 
curiosity, or for that most dismal of all functions, "to 
pay my respects." In the main, they were either 
seekers for office, or those who had been fortunate 
enough to obtain appointments — these carrying out our 
curious etiquette of coming to thank the President in 
person. These various processes w^ould end with the 
luncheon hour, when more business might be transacted 
with some Cabinet officer, with a knotty problem in 
policy or patronage, or, if luck favored, opportunity 
might be found to pass an hour with a valued friend 
who, in the press of public occupations, had been neg- 
lected or overlooked. 

During the afternoon, personal appointments, made 
by himself or his secretary, would be kept; members 
of the Cabinet, with overflowing portfolios, w^ould be 
received and the easiest part of their business disposed 
of, by w^iich time the dinner hour had arrived. Even 
here, public affairs could not entirely be put on one 
side, as some one w^as generally on hand — often another 
member of the Cabinet — with a different assortment of 
problems and difficulties. 



112 RECOLLECTIONS OF 



VI 

In those days at three o'clock, on two afternoons of the 
week, a reception was held, to which the general public 
was invited. Promptly on the minute, the President 
would take his stand in the East Room, where all who 
came were permitted to shake him by the hand. This 
now discarded function has been so often described that 
it is not necessary again to tell the public what it was 
like. But I soon discovered that it meant more to Mr. 
Cleveland than to most Presidents. 

In later years he often spoke of it as one of the 
characteristic features of our institutions that any per- 
son, young or old, rich or poor, white or black, known or 
obscure, could, if even decently clad, not only see the 
man who, for the time, was at the head of his country's 
management, but that he could speak to him upon any 
question in which he had a peculiar interest. He used 
to delight in the scene when he could look out of the 
Executive Mansion, in every direction, without seeing 
a soldier or so much as a policeman. It has been my 
privilege to see many Presidents in these informal func- 
tions, but none who was himself so much interested in 
the crowd about him as really to enjoy this part of his 
work. On these occasions I have seen him shake hands 
with four hundred men, women, and children within 
twenty minutes. 

In most cases, the American citizen who finds him- 
self before the President of the United States is, some- 
how, awed into silence. The fine speeches, imagined 
or composed, have flown out of the windows. Perhaps 
one in five has some word for the President's ear, now 
of suggestion or advice, again an application for some 



GRO VER CLEVELAND 1 1 3 

desired post, but generally a wholesome, hearty greeting 
of a personal character. In all my experience, no man 
ever adapted himself better to his visitors. As each 
greeting might demand, he gave something original in 
return, the ready wit, the lightness of his character 
coming out in fitting jest, or his deep, underlying senti- 
ment finding expression in terms which defined his good 
will to the person concerned. 

He would not permit visitors to be crowded or hur- 
ried, and the attendant who attempted this was sure 
to find himself baffled by the tact and persistence of the 
President. Overwhelmed as he was with the serious 
concerns put into his keeping, neither neglecting nor 
overlooking anything, he would give this popular cere- 
monial unremitting attention until the latest comer had 
been seen and had had his opportunity to see. 



VII 

Mr. Cleveland was one of the most popular of the 
Presidents with the officials and attendants of the Ex- 
ecutive Mansion. His uniform courtesy, his thought- 
fulness, his expressed and felt interest in the individual, 
his refusal to put burdens upon his helpers, made his 
administration a model in this respect : so that his advent 
a second time was welcomed. 

I should doubt whether, during all the years of his 
Presidency, a clerk or attendant ever heard from him 
so much as a word of impatience, to say nothing of 
scolding or reproof. He was generally very well 
served, but, in spite of this fact, he preferred to do a thing 
himself rather than to berate some one else for igno- 
rance or oversight. That he was often imposed upon 



114 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

was one of the incidents of his nature and his position: 
but with him that was no excuse for crossness or ill 
temper. 

It must not, however, be concluded that he was thus 
easy with responsible offenders in public office. He 
could be as severe with neglect or infraction of duty 
as any man. 

About nine o'clock at night I would see a Cabinet 
official, or some one representing him, put in an appear- 
ance by appointment with the President. Generally 
speaking, within my experience, it was the Secretary of 
the Treasury, the Postmaster-General, the Secretary of 
the Interior, or the Attorney-General — the officials with 
much routine business and the fattest of patronage lists. 
Thus he would have to deal for hours with complicated 
public affairs and consider an interminable list of ap- 
pointments. In many instances these budgets were not 
disposed of before eleven or twelve o'clock, and often 
such an official was kept with the President until even a 
later hour. 



VIII 

A STRIKING illustration of his methods during the first 
administration — and this was typical of his official life 
— that came to my knowledge during my stay in the 
room across the hall, was that told me by the Pardon 
Clerk of the Department of Justice. The incumbent of 
this office at the time was Alexander R. Boteler, who, 
upon the wrenching of West Virginia from the Old 
Dominion, was one of the original United States Sena- 
tors for the new State. He was a well-trained lawyer 
of the old school, a conscientious public servant who, 
long after his retirement from active politics, had found 



GROVER CLEVELAND 115 

refuge in this department, where the work was both con- 
genial and responsible. During one of my visits to him 
after the election of 1888, Mr. Boteler said to me: 

I had been Pardon Clerk for some time under 
President Arthur, and so I thought I knew some- 
thing of the way to handle applications for pardons 
and commutations. In course of time it had devel- 
oped a routine from which there were few departures. 
The applications were first taken up in my bureau, 
where the case was carefully examined, a conclusion 
reached, a recommendation made, after which a 
memorandum was prepared and sent to the Attorney- 
General for his action. This generally meant ap- 
proval of the work of his department, after which 
a statement of each case, duly docketed, would go 
to the President, generally carried by the Pardon 
Clerk, sometimes, though rarely, by the Attorney- 
General himself. As the pardons and commutations 
of sentences passed by the courts were granted in the 
exercise of pure executive power, the President 
must sign them. 

In my earlier experience this had been merely 
formal: generally the approval of action recom- 
mended by the department. The first time I had 
occasion to visit President Cleveland on this official 
errand, I was sent for at night — this of itself being 
a departure from traditional methods. However, I 
assumed that the President would keep me only the 
usual few minutes necessary to sign the recom- 
mendations of his chief judicial adviser. When the 
first case came before him, I found I had made a 
mistake. He opened the papers, began to read them 
through from beginning to end, and that, too, in his 



ii6 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

slow-moving, deliberate way, and also proceeded to 
ask questions about the merits of the case itself. 
As I was taken unawares, naturally I was not pre- 
pared to answer these pointed inquiries, with the 
result that the application was referred back to the 
department, with instructions to get the papers and 
also to reply to certain questions he had asked. 

I feared I had made a rather sorry showing at 
this first important conference with the President, 
and began to be apprehensive lest my bureau had 
not, after all, done its full duty and that the credit 
of the department might suffer in his eyes ; but I was 
reassured when the President told me that, in his 
opinion, this particular duty seemed to him quite the 
most important and solemn which, in the full pleni- 
tude of his authority and responsibility, he had to 
deal with. He did not criticize any of his pre- 
decessors for conducting the business in a way 
different from his own, but at once made new 
requirements about the handling of applications for 
pardons by the department, and especially as to the 
manner of submission to him. All the illustrating 
papers were to accompany the recommendations 
of the department: the petitions, the letters from 
judges or jurymen; the previous record of the appli- 
cant; the time that had elapsed between his arrest 
and conviction; the character of the prisoner and 
of his work before sentence; his conduct and, 
in reality, any fact which could, by any possibility, 
bear upon the case, was to be available, if, in his 
judgment, it was needed. 

When this record was made up and submitted, he 
would still keep me for hours, going over all the 
features entering into account, with as much care 



GROVER CLEVELAND 117 

as if he was himself trying the accused in a court 
of original jurisdiction. He was not satisfied even 
then, but, when a decision was reached, never hur- 
riedly or formally, he would often prepare the memo- 
randum to be filed in the department. In the more 
difficult cases he would take the papers, go over them 
himself in detail, and so delay his decision until he 
had thoroughly satisfied himself of the merits of the 
application. 

I recall one instance, among many, which illus- 
trated his method of dealing with pardons and com- 
mutations, and also showed his sensibility. Out in 
the Indian Territory an Indian, an idle and, I fear, 
a very bad one, had killed another of the same general 
character, in a drunken brawl. The case appeared 
to be a perfectly straight and clear one, but, when 
I brought him the papers, I saw that he was inter- 
ested and that he was not likely to rest satisfied 
with the department recommendation that the law 
should take its course. The record was an elaborate 
one, even as we had prepared it, but it was still in- 
sufficient to satisfy the President and his scruples. 
There was none too much time to act, but he delayed 
the execution, called for the full shorthand report of 
the trial, and instructed us to procure further letters 
from the judges, the District Attorney, and the 
jurors. When they were submitted, he went over 
all these with the most elaborate and painstaking 
care, and finally disposed of the case in a memoran- 
dum of a few words, granting a commutation. 

While we were investigating this particular case 
and when he had come to a decision, he said to me: 
"Boteler, I could not have slept nights if this man 
had been hanged because of a declination or failure 



ii8 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

on my part to look into his case. He is only a poor 
Indian, but I cannot forget that he has nobody else 
in the world to look after him and to see that his 
rights are fully preserved, and I will do it whatever 
effort it may cost me." 

At another time there came before him the case 
of a cashier who, defaulting, had stolen money from 
a national bank. The strongest pressure was brought 
to induce the President to pardon him, but when he 
signed the memorandum of refusal he said to me: 
"We must not forget that this man has robbed poor 
men, women, and children. I will not pardon any 
such man, because his offense endangers the founda- 
tion of business honor." • 

I have explained some of his methods at length in order 
to show why the polished door revealed the shadow of 
this "moving finger" and why it was often busy 
writing at two, or three, and sometimes, as I discov- 
ered later, at four o'clock in the morning. This in- 
stance was only typical. I found that he took abnormal 
pains to prevent the success of a fraudulent applica- 
tion for a pension the amount of which was insignifi- 
cant ; to investigate a claim ; or to satisfy himself about 
the small matters entering into account in the routine 
business of a great government. He simply could not 
and would not accept the conclusion of any adviser, 
however dignified or trusted, when a principle was in- 
volved, unless or until that ofificial had demonstrated 
his faith by works which proved that he, too, was as 
careful and as conscientious as his chief. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 119 



IX 

T FEAR that some of my readers may be reminded, by 
this long- interruption, of the course of an Eastern tale: 
but it has seemed to me fitting to tell it here at the very 
threshold of my story of the twenty years' association 
which was to bring before me many times these and a 
thousand like facts and impressions. At that time I 
had not seen the President, except on official or cere- 
monious occasions, so that he could have no personal 
recollection of me. 

I do not believe that he knew I was working only 
a few feet from him, until I had the book fairly under 
way. I had included in it a feature which seemed to 
me important and informing for the average political 
orator, for whose instruction such a compilation was 
prepared and published. This was a formal collection 
of such of the candidate's speeches and addresses as I 
could gather, especially those lying outside politics or 
administration. Within two or three weeks, when I 
received proofs of this section of the book, I sent him a 
set of them, and the next day he came to thank me. It 
so happened that, even thus early, I had found some 
utterances which he himself had quite forgotten. 

As in duty and pleasure bound, I continued to send 
him proofs, and so, from time to time, in the late after- 
noon, after a public reception, or when he could find a 
little leisure, he would visit my working-room. T recall 
that he was keenly interested in the collected histories 
of the departments, which, by this time, were beginning 
to come from many dififerent directions. He expressed 
surprise that it had been possible in a few weeks to make 
so complete a showing, and he was scarcely less aston- 



I20 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

ished that, when massed, it revealed such a creditable 
record on the part of his administration, in so brief a 
time as three years. He was interested when I told him 
that, so far as my knowledge went, this was the first 
instance in our political history— and I may add that 
it was perhaps the last— in which an official text-book 
representing the policy of a great party had been com- 
piled by one man, with only a single adviser, and with- 
out the oversight or authority of a committee of some 
kind. When it appeared, a book of 652 pages, in com- 
paratively small type, he found that more than a hun- 
dred volunteers had taken part in its preparation. 



X 

As the compilation neared completion the President 
showed more and more interest in it. "You are certainly 
making campaigning easy," he said, ''for the average pub- 
lic speaker. Even a man who keeps in the closest possible 
touch with politics and is expected to make original con- 
tributions to its discussion needs the facts and docu- 
ments thus brought together in order that he may so 
verify his figures as to clench his arguments." He was 
convinced, however, that the real benefit of a compila- 
tion on these lines lay in the fact that the busy country 
lawyer, or the young man just starting out, was enabled 
to marshal his facts and conclusions in a way otherwise 
impossible. 

The massing of the historical materials relating to 
four years of actual administration seemed to him more 
valuable than the conclusions of some one writer who 
might interpret events in his own way. He feared that 
the trend of thought was setting in the direction of a 



GROVER CLEVELAND 121 

personal following in politics and that voters were so 
inclined to run in organized bodies that they would 
permit a leader, generally in office, to sound the note in 
public discussion. This did not appear to him whole- 
some, because, as country must be put above party, so 
the principles of a party should take precedence of the 
opinions or interests of the individuals who compose it, 
whatever their position. 



XI 

It has always seemed to me curious that, although I 
was fairly well known in Washington, I made my daily 
round through departments and Capitol; associated 
familiarly with members of Congress, many of them 
Republicans ; met, day after day and night after night, 
dozens of Washington correspondents ; and yet the mat- 
ter was so well concealed that I have never so much as 
heard even a rumor that I had for more than seven 
weeks, in 1888, at an office in the White House, prepared 
the Democratic Campaign Text-Book. 

It became almost wholly a personal undertaking. I had 
slipped into Washington one Monday morning; had 
taken possession of a room across the hall from the 
workroom of the President of the United States; had 
gone into the departments, one after another; had seen 
department, bureau, or division heads ; and, before any- 
body realized it, the task was done. It would have been 
impossible if the secret of my errand had not been kept 
by a hundred discreet men. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE PRESIDENTIAL INTERIM 



TRANSFERRED from Washington to National Com- 
mittee headquarters in New York to undertake 
the task— soon seen to be hopeless— of bringing 
order out of chaos in the literary branch of its work, 
with the Text-Book not yet completed, I quit the hard 
work incident to the White House after seven weeks of 
occupancy of my room there. 

It would be idle, at this distance of time, to discuss that 
ill-starred campaign with its futile^ amateur manage- 
ment, its wasted effort, its lack of sympathy, either with 
the candidate or the issue he had raised, and its almost 
tragic outcome. 



II 

Two days before the expiration of his first term, I made 
a visit to Washington to see the outgoing President, 
fearful lest no other Democrat might again fill the 
office in my time. I found him still sternly attached to 
the issue he had raised, regretful only for its defeat, 
not for his own, and disdainful of ambition for the 
future. He manifested no sympathy with the move- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 123 

ment in his favor, which began to take on importance 
from the moment of his defeat. 

He foresaw, even then, with great clearness of vision 
the events of the succeeding four years : the comparative 
waste of a surpKis collected and preserved, by dint of 
great effort and under discouraging conditions; the 
triumph of tariff greed; and the failure to meet the 
financial situation as represented by the growing de- 
mand for the free coinage of silver. He told me of his 
plans for the future, of his desire to escape from tur- 
moil and misunderstanding, and of his firm belief, often 
repeated in the future, as the reader will discover, that 
he had done his real work, incomplete as it was, so far 
as the Presidency was concerned. 

When he came to New York for residence and was 
settled in his office at 45 William Street, I called to 
see him, after which, while I heard much of his 
movements through Colonel Lamont and other friends, 
I seldom saw him during the summer. He was absent 
a great deal, and when at home was finding some of 
"the rest so much needed. He was also adjusting him- 
self to new and strange surroundings. It was his first 
experience of life in a great city. The whole environ- 
ment was strange to him, as it remained to the end. 
He accepted few invitations, made only two or three 
speeches — mainly in reply to conventional welcomes — 
and slowly settled down to a new routine. 

It was not long, however, before a sentiment of regret 
over his defeat and premature retirement from public 
life began to manifest itself. Perhaps it was first openly 
shown at the centennial celebration of the inauguration 
of Washington, at the close of April after his retire- 
ment. This was unconsciously promoted by a remark- 
able sermon preached on that occasion in St. Paul's 



124 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Chapel by the late Bishop Potter. It was, in every sense, 
a lofty treatment of the great questions of the day, but, 
somehow, in the public mind, it was associated with ap- 
proval of the President who had just retired and with 
condemnation of his successor. As is often the case 
with public sentiment, this was an unfair inference, but 
from it may be dated the feeling in the public mind, 
fickle as it is, that perhaps an injustice had been done to 
a man who, after doing commanding service, was still 
in the prime of life and capable of still higher work. 

About the middle of the following November, Colonel 
Lamont said one day: "I wish you would run over and 
see the President. He is going to make a speech in 
Boston some time next month, and he needs you. He 
has not even the smallest idea of how to get it distribu- 
ted, and so does not know which way to turn. I am too 
much engaged to help him, and so have told him that I 
would send you over, and that you would attend to it. 
At any rate, go and discuss the matter with him." 

I scarcely felt that my acquaintance with Mr. Cleve- 
land was close enough to warrant the assumption that 
I could be of service to him, but, keeping my promise, 
I went, and this was the real beginning of an interesting 
relation. Starting with only a bare acquaintance, which 
itself grew out of a chance meeting over political busi- 
ness, it developed at once, with new opportunity, into 
confidence on his part and devotion and interest on my 
side. 



Ill 

This address was the first important one he had made 
since leaving the Presidency. It was to be delivered 
before the Merchants' Association of Boston on Decern- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 125 

ber 12 of that year. I found him nervous about it. He 
had scarcely yet had time to perceive the chang-e in the 
public temper and was in much trepidation lest he might 
not be able to do real service to the good causes whose 
success he wished to promote. 

Ballot reform was then in its infancy, but he deter- 
mined to make it the principal topic of his discourse. 
When I called to see him, the speech had been blocked 
out, the first or second revision had been made, and it 
had been read to Colonel Lamont and one or two friends. 
They had not wholly approved the advanced position 
he had taken, and had endeavored — and, as was usual 
wnth them and all others, vainly — to get him to modify 
it. He read it over to me with that care which ere long 
I was to understand better. Even then, I made two or 
three modest suggestions of verbal changes, most of 
which he adopted ; but when I mentioned anew the objec- 
tions which, though urged by Colonel Lamont and the 
others, did not appeal to me, he used very positive lan- 
guage in deciding that he would never consent to eliminate 
these sentences. They remained in the speech, and, as 
often happened, were the most effective parts of it, and 
more than justified his own judgment. 

So he made another fair copy, and this was again 
read aloud for further criticism. It w^as in this way 
that a new start in Mr. Cleveland's public life — for this 
was what it really meant — was initiated. It was sent 
to the printer of the weekly paper of which I was then 
editor, and the proofs were read with unusual care. 

As it was my function, primarily, to advise upon the 
distribution to the press, this question was very fully 
discussed, with a good many ups and downs. I had not 
counted upon being asked for an opinion on the merits, 
the form, or the policy of the address, although, as I 



126 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

learned later, this was one of the features in mind when 
I was requested to lend my assistance. I did not as- 
sume to be a judge of these qualities, but I did feel that I 
knew how best to reach the newspapers with effective- 
ness. He w^anted to limit the number to about twenty 
or thirty selected papers; but I stood for a universal 
distribution to morning newspapers, through the press 
associations, of which there were then two, with no 
copies to individual editors or papers, not even as com- 
pliments to friends. Thus was inaugurated the policy of 
giving his utterances to the whole country upon a given 
date, and avoiding any possible charge of favoritism: 
a policy which was to have far-reaching effects. 



IV 

He agreed to this, and so it was arranged that about five 
hundred copies should be printed ; but there was a marked 
difference of opinion about the time that the matter 
should be furnished to the associations for distribution 
under their system by post. It was before the days of 
limited fast trains to the Pacific coast, and so I stood for 
the seven days then necessary to assure their delivery in 
the remotest parts of the country. He had then, as 
always before and after, the very strongest distrust of 
newspaper editors, so that when he finally compromised 
upon five days, being the most that he would consent to 
allow, he accompanied this with the final grumble: "You 
will find yourself betrayed by some one, and I will be 
speaking an address which has been published some- 
where." He was not satisfied even when assured that 
in such a case we should punish the offending papers. 
Some days after the earlier copies had gone out through 



GROVER CLEVELAND 127 

one of the press associations, an oversight was discov- 
ered which made it necessary to send out some supple- 
mentary suppHes. When I notified him of this, he 
forwarded them, but wrote me, only two days before the 
delivery of the address in Boston, the following- letter: 
the first in what was to prove a long series running over 
the remainder of his life. 

45 William Street, 
New York, December 10, 1889. 
Dear Mr. Porker: 

I send the copies of the address as you requested. I am 
afraid you will be "too previous" if you send to the Pittsburgh 
papers to-day. I think it would be better to wait to mail them 
at such a time as will put them in the hands of the editors not 
earlier than Thursday afternoon. They ought not to be kick- 
ing about a newspaper office very long before the thing is 
delivered. Yours very truly, 

Grover Cleveland. 
George F. Parker, Esq., 
57 Broadway. 

There was no premature publication; his speech was 
printed letter-perfect as delivered, in practically every 
paper in the United States; the suspected editors had 
had time to study what he said and to comment upon it 
with intelligence; and he was both pleased and sur- 
prised at the reception he had commanded in the countr\-. 

From that time until the end of his life, I handled 
something like sixty or seventy speeches or letters, and 
of them all, there was never a single abuse of the privi- 
lege. To this policy, far more than to anything else, 
except his own personality, must be attributed his third 
nomination and his overwhelming election to the Presi- 
dency for a second term. Although he never lost his 



128 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

suspicion of the individual editor or reporter, it was 
never necessary, after this first successful experiment, 
to ask what time he would give for reaching the coun- 
try. I did as I chose in this respect, and he cared noth- 
ing about it. 



Although Mr. Cleveland neither suspected nor in- 
tended it, this Boston speech of December 12, 1889, was 
the opening gun in the campaign for his third nomina- 
tion and second election. His friends, especially those 
in Boston, had not lost sight of this hope : which was, to 
them, the logic of his defeat at the preceding election, 
and the fitting climax to his career. Soon thereafter, 
probably upon my first long visit to his house — which 
was early substituted for the office as a place to discuss 
his new work of dealing with the public — I raised this 
question of his renomination. He disavowed all idea 
of a return to public life in any capacity, and concerning 
a reelection he said: 

Why should I have any desire or purpose of re- 
turning to the Presidency? It involves a responsi- 
bility almost beyond human strength for a man who 
brings conscience to the discharge of his duties. 
Besides, I feel somehow that I made a creditable 
showing during my first term, all things considered, 
and I might lose whatever of character and reputa- 
tion are already gained in it. I do not want the 
office, and, above all, I do not feel that I can take 
the risk involved in a second term after the interven- 
tion of one by another man and an opposing party. 
It would be necessary for me to start new again, 
and I do not feel equal to it. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 129 

It was useless to urge that, from the signs of the 
times, he would be able to render a service to the country 
which, compared with anything in his first term, would 
be colossal in its proportions, I make no doubt that this 
colloquy, in virtually identical language, was repeated 
between us more than a score of times during the two 
and a half years succeeding the events just narrated. 
Until within a few months of the Chicago Convention 
he never failed to insist that he did not want to be a 
candidate, and, at the very last, he consented with great 
reluctance. This position did not betoken an undue or 
mock modesty; it was not because he wanted to be urged, 
or from a disinclination to yield his own judgment to that 
of his friends and partizan followers. He had held the 
office, had tried his own capacities, and had no illusions 
about either it or himself. Nor was he one to affect an 
indifference to a lofty ambition like that involved in 
the Presidency, for, as I shall show hereafter, when the 
time came for work, he was one of the most ingenious, 
efficient, and helpful of politicians, whether it involved 
his own fortunes or those of another. These things 
were only incidents of a cause to which he was devoted, 
and he looked upon himself as a soldier enlisted in the 
volunteer army of good citizenship. 

Once the way was open in this matter of influencing 
the country, it became next to impossible to stop. He 
had no friend anywhere, scarcely an atrquaintance, who 
was not convinced, after the Merchants' Association 
address, that his renomination in 1892 was both a patri- 
otic and a party necessity. But the sentiment lay much 
deeper than mere friendship or acquaintance. It would 
be difficult to exaggerate the outburst of feeling that 
was soon to manifest itself, without the necessity for 
machinery or organization, from every part of the 



130 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

country, down among the people themselves. Hitherto, 
in his short public career, he had not had many oppor- 
tunities to feel the popular pulse so far as speech was 
concerned. He had not undertaken to interpret his pub- 
lic acts. He did not give much heed to the swelling 
tide of approval as it came to him in the press : he was 
never greatly impressed with this as a form of public 
sentiment. Now, however, began that flood of private 
letters which showed, far more conclusively, that he was 
really in the way to be understood by his countrymen— 
something far more agreeable to him than distinction 
or continuance in public office. 



VI 

Among other features was the almost overwhelming 
demand, from every part of the country and from almost 
every order of serious organization among his country- 
men, that he should make a speech, deliver an oration, 
or address a college society. He soon found it difficult 
even to answer these invitations, to say nothing of ac- 
cepting them. He disliked public speaking, and it was 
disagreeable to make the necessary preparation. He 
would speak only when he felt that he could say some- 
thing worth while. He felt so deeply on the problems 
confronting his countrymen, that, if he consented to 
deal with these at all, he was desirous that his con- 
tributions should be really helpful, without the slightest 
regard to himself and his position. It was not long 
before he found himself writing somewhat elaborate 
letters of regret— efforts which required nearly as much 
work in the way of preparation as a speech. As these 
were nearly always printed in the local press and thus 



GROVER CLEVELAND 131 

gradually found their way into wider circulation, the 
pressure increased, and he soon found that, whether he 
wanted it so or not, much of his time had to be given up 
to the public. 

During the year that followed the Boston address, 
he avoided political, and especially party, questions so 
far as possible. He had to make a great number of 
speeches, generally in New York itself, or within easy 
reach, upon religious, philanthropic, literary, profes- 
sional, and other questions of a social character. Every 
address, whatever its nature, or however local it might 
be or seem, was distributed upon the system already 
described. The exalted position he had held, aided by 
his new popularity in the country, procured the very 
widest publicity for everything that he said or wrote. 
Millions of people who had never known him as other 
than a political figure found out that he held sensible, 
rational opinions upon a vast range of topics in connec- 
tion with which they had never thought of him. His 
addresses were never so frequent as to pall, and were 
always so short and fitting as to command publication 
and attract readers. He did not indulge in the cheap 
humor then so common, and not yet extinct, so that his 
character as a man of serious mind never suffered. 

Never was a better or surer foundation laid for ef- 
fective political work than this one. It brought little 
surprise to the public, and much gratification to his 
friends, to see how fully he met the demands of the one 
and the solicitations of the other. He thus made a 
series of efifective speeches on questions of the day, more 
especially those which he himself had emphasized and 
brought to the front. From this time forward, the de- 
mands for such interpretations of his policy came from 
every part of the country, North or South. 



132 RECOLLECTIONS OF 



VII 

There was no organization, no plan, no money, for 
promoting the third nomination, and yet, somehow, the 
movementbegan to takeon something Hke form— not from 
any open approval on the part of the man chiefly in- 
volved, but by the silence which is said to give consent. 
How it started, or how it was carried on, I could not 
explain. Prominent men from outside or distant States 
began to ask whether I thought that Mr. Cleveland 
would accept an invitation to make a speech at some 
Democratic celebration or banquet in their neighbor- 
hood. Others dropped into my office with the request 
that I should take them over to see Mr. Cleveland, and 
still others were referred to me by him. 

I bore no official or personal relation to him and none 
of any kind beyond that described. Before long, how- 
ever, I was supposed, in the mind of such persons, to 
be a sort of assistant or secretary, so that the reputation 
of managing a campaign for a Presidential nomination 
was thrust upon me. I had not sought any such posi- 
tion, nor knowingly accepted it, or counted upon hold- 
ing it, and as private employments were already exact- 
ing, no such addition to my burdens had entered into 
my mind : but the ends thus instinctively aimed at were 
consonant with my own ideas and desires. So I soon 
came to enjoy it and, in course of time, adjusted my 
aifairs to this unexpected interruption. 

The Congressional elections of 1890 gave an over- 
mastering impetus to the movement. After the "Old 
Roman" banquet — which was organized and managed by 
John J. Lentz, then a rising young politician in Ohio— 
in honor of Allen G. Thurman, given on November 



1 




MR. ci.i:vi;lam) at his dusk 



GROVER CLEVELAND 133 

13, 1890— really the first in the series of important party 
addresses— invitations to speak came to Mr. Cleveland 
in growing numbers. This interest was intensified by 
the banquet— which had, perhaps, as far-reaching effects 
as any ever held in the United States— given by the 
Reform Club of New York on December 23, 1890. 
From that time forth there was no such thing as curb- 
ing party enthusiasm or of even thinking of a candidate 
for the nomination other than Mr. Cleveland. 

This dominating afifair, which was suggested and car- 
ried through by a few men, had many interesting fea- 
tures in it — some of which were wholly concealed from 
the public. It was assumed from this time, by the inner 
circle, which had been enlarged until it included men of 
commanding party influence in every State of the Union, 
that it w^as no longer necessary to trouble ourselves about 
the nomination for President: this was firmly settled 
in the public mind as well as by party necessity and des- 
tiny. 



VIII 

It was, therefore, proposed to lay lines for the Vice- 
Presidency, in order to assure a candidate with an 
ability, standing, and experience that would add strength 
to the ticket and also bring this office back to the high 
traditions of earlier days. Among those consulted were 
two influential leaders from Iowa— the late Moses M. 
Ham, formerly member of the National Committee, and 
his successor, Jennis J. Richardson, who were strongly 
desirous of bringing before the country, in a large way, 
the name and personality of Horace Boies, then Gov- 
ernor of that State. They insisted that he should be 



134 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

invited to speak at the banquet upon the relation of the 
tariff to the Western farmer. AUhough the list of 
speakers had been made up — containing as it did the 
strongest possible array of leading men from every 
section of the country — the toast list was gladly en- 
larged by the addition of this name. 

On the day of the banquet Governor Boies came to 
New York and naturally desired to pay his respects to 
Mr. Cleveland, who, many years before, had been an ac- 
quaintance in Buffalo. Formal greetings over, the Gover- 
nor took occasion to ask his former neighbor whether the 
absence of a dress-suit would be noticed and also whether 
reading rather than declaiming his speech would be ac- 
ceptable. He was reassured on these points, and the 
speech made by the Governor was well received by his 
audience, made an impression upon the country, and 
brought him into greater vogue in his own State. 

The Governor's friends had not deemed it necessary, 
at this early stage, to consult him about his Vice-Presi- 
dential candidacy, and I may here anticipate my story 
by a few months, and tell the sequel. By the end of the 
next year, the Governor of Iowa, greatly to the con- 
sternation and embarrassment of his friends — our asso- 
ciates and fellow-plotters — had blossomed out as a full- 
fledged candidate for the Presidency, with the result 
that when the Cleveland forces arrived in Chicago on 
June 17, 1892, the noisiest and most persistent of the 
opposing movements to be encountered was that organ- 
ized by the supporters of Horace Boies — for whom his 
State had given binding instructions. Delegations of 
lowans, to whom even a Democratic Governor was a 
most unfamiliar sight, had come to town in great force 
to insist that their candidate could carry Iowa, and that 
ours could not. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 135 

It caused only annoyance, but it did illustrate how 
in politics, as otherwheres, 

The best-laid schemes o' mice and men 
Gang aft agley. 

When the Vice-Presidency came up for consideration, 
the name first in mind among the supporters of the suc- 
cessful candidate was the Governor of Iowa; but the 
tender, and with it the Vice-Presidency for four years, 
were contemptuously cast aside, and the incident took 
its place among the unexpected humors of politics. 



IX 

This movement, thus fairly under way, was nursed 
in the office of an obscure weekly newspaper in lower 
Broadway. There were no committees made up of 
names, whether prominent or aspiring, no secretaries, 
no machinery, and no money. Mr. Cleveland's invita- 
tion list greW' apace, until it became necessary for him to 
arrange acceptances with some regard to system. But, 
if the movement had no important centre and no head, 
it had a popular following all over the country. Mr. 
Cleveland himself was no more a conscious, avowed 
candidate than he had been at any previous time, and 
when I would speak to him, now and again, upon the 
question, I was met uniformly with the answer already 
recorded. He always believed, up to a period somewhat 
later than this, that the Cause— as he always termed 
it— would develop a candidate other than himself. He 
thus felt free to give any aid in his power without being 
subject to a charge of promoting his own ambitions, 
already fully satisfied. 



136 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Early in 189 1, the pressure from every part of the 
country, for at least the semblance of an organization, 
became stronger. Prominent politicians, influential or 
dominant in their States, came to New York as to a 
Mecca, while men seldom heard of in such movements 
also came and added to its strength. No overtures 
were made to anybody, no support was sought, no ma- 
chine was devised; but as no efforts were required, 
within a short time it became necessary for me to put 
myself into correspondence with one or more trusted 
men in every State— men who could give information 
as to the Cleveland sentiment. 

As I recall, it was possible for me, from my personal 
acquaintance, to choose these men in something more 
than thirty States. By this time Mr. Cleveland's cor- 
respondence had increased to abnormal proportions, and 
he was engaged in a never-ending struggle to keep pace 
with it in those innumerable letters in his own hand. 
When I could think of no suitable man in a given State, 
I would go to him, and handing me some stray letter, 
generally written by a stranger to both of us, he would 
say: "Well, I received this the other day. I don't know 
the man, but he may be of use to you." In these ways, 
without calling for help or showing my political cards 
to any one, the list was completed, and it laid the founda- 
tion for the far more serious and vital work of the 
future. 



It was the oddest of campaigns. Its most curious and 
.unusual feature was the comparative absence of men 
close to the party machine. In every State, except 
Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, our original corre- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 137 

spondents and advisers were men not known in active 
manag-ement, either then or since. In many States, in 
fact in most, the machine was a persistent, often a 
malig-nant, enemy. If there ever was a movement which 
derived both its origin and its strength from the people, 
it was this one, with no organization behind it, or any- 
thing except the personality of a man who, having 
espoused an idea, thus made real appeal to popular 
sentiment. 

Nor was its conduct, so far as correspondence was 
concerned, anything like so difficult or intricate as might 
have been supposed. Letters were continually coming 
in to me making report of local conditions in many 
States, but it must also be recalled that others were ar- 
riving in still greater numbers to Mr. Cleveland and 
that these were common property. He had the keenest 
appreciation of the value of something written by some 
one else, but was wholly contemptuous as to the value or 
forgetful of the existence of a contribution of his own. 

This fact was effectively illustrated while the Farmers' 
Alliance movement was reaching its development in 
the West and South. He had watched this growth with 
the deepest interest, and, in many respects, with sym- 
pathy, but he had never dealt with it as a political idea. 
Early in 1890, just after we had begun to circulate his 
utterances in a systematic way, the growth of this or- 
ganization came up one evening in the course of con- 
versation, when he said: "Parker, I wrote a letter the 
other day in reply to one which came from somewhere 
in Ohio, in which I set forth, rather fully, my view of 
the relation of the farmers to the tariff." 

As there was need, just then, for such an exposi- 
tion, I was interested and sought at once to find his cor- 
respondent and to get his letter. As he kept no copies, 



138 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

he could only give its purport from memory. After a 
hunt of a day or so, he found the name and address on 
a used envelop. With no more clue than this, I wrote 
to the editor of the local Democratic paper, told him of 
the existence of the letter, suggested its publication, and 
procured from him a copy, which was distributed in the 
usual way. Politically speaking, it proved one of the 
most useful and influential of his productions and ob- 
tained a wide circulation. 



XI 

Once started, the movement ran itself, gathering mo- 
mentum without concerted effort or central direction. 
Even the most efficient State boss, if the cooperation 
of such an one could have been imagined, would have 
been wholly lost in the overmastering, irresistible pub- 
lic sentiment to which it was early possible to make 
appeal. When the movement was fairly under way, 
three months after the elections of 1890, nothing but 
Mr. Cleveland's positive and firm refusal to accept, if 
nominated in the following year, would have had the 
smallest effect upon the party and its action. Doubt 
no longer existed or was possible. It was not only pub- 
lic sentiment to which appeal could be made, but by this 
time the most effective, because a thoroughly popular, 
machine had been constructed — exclusively a Cleveland 
machine, having only the smallest connection with any- 
thing that was in existence at the close of the first term, 
or with the official organization of the party in even 
so much as one State. 

As this organization grew without the use of money, 
or the intervention of any recognized leader, new or 
old, or anything resembling routine or conscious 



GROVER CLEVELAND 139 

management, it becomes, as an historical fact, as spon- 
taneous, and in its final results and conduct— the 
management at Headquarters in 1892— perhaps as ar- 
tistic as any known to American experience. Its 
motive power was not new: it was merely the applica- 
tion to the country at large, on modified lines— though 
without money to sustain or promote it — of the methods 
so successfully employed in New York a few years 
earlier by Samuel J. Tilden. Without definite plans to 
be followed, it brought to the front the best men of the 
party, who, interested in politics, but more in a man 
and a cause, without personal ambitions of their own, 
did their work and passed off the political scene. 

This was true not only in small communities, but in 
the whole country. A majority of the workers had 
never seen Mr. Cleveland, and he probably never heard 
of one in a hundred, until he received reports about 
them from his friends. In the beginning they were en- 
tirely unknown to Mr. Whitney or to any of the man- 
agers, who came upon the scene when the real work 
of the campaign was over. They were lawyers, doctors, 
business men, financiers, farmers, even clergymen. I 
doubt whether one in five of them had ever voted at a 
primary or was known to the local management of his 
party. Only a few of their names came even to Mr. 
Cleveland and myself— then the only persons who knew 
the course of matters— for, behind those mentioned, 
were unnumbered thousands whose very existence was 
wholly unknown to us. 

XII 

In spite of the spontaneity of the movement, it was not 
without form or void. Almost unconsciously, the men 



I40 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

knew each other — as it is said the members of a Vigi- 
lance Committee instinctively recognize their fellows. 
In the end, nothing was overlooked, no risks or chances 
were taken. If a situation in a given State was weak, or 
had in it doubtful elements, some man within its borders 
was chosen or volunteered to set it right. If a large 
city needed attention, it was given; because, in some 
mysterious way, the right man came to the front and 
executed the task allotted to him by common consent. 
A like process adapted itself to conditions in districts 
and counties. I never heard of jealousies even in a 
single State. It was natural that new men should push 
themselves to the front because they were able to do 
something of interest to themselves and of use to the 
cause in hand. As they could get quickly under way, 
they had done their work before the regular political 
forces woke up, but it would have been easy to compose 
any difficulties that might present themselves. Our 
friends were looking for results, not recognition, and 
willingly retired again to the background when they had 
gained what they wanted. 

Perhaps this was best illustrated in California, where 
the machine was really against us so far as this is pos- 
sible when public sentiment runs strongly in an oppo- 
site direction. The man through whom we worked 
there, from the beginning, was John P. Irish, formerly 
of Iowa. I had known him since 1868; he had held close 
relations with Mr. Cleveland, both individually and in 
politics, and was as effective a stump speaker as his 
party had. He was a newspaper man of training and 
experience, though then unattached. He began on his 
own motion, without money or aid of any kind, the task 
of influencing public sentiment through the country 
newspapers to which he found ready access. With the 



GROVER CLEVELAND 141 

local machine he was perhaps the most unpopular man 
to be found anywhere, a fact which added to his plea- 
sure in the task he had undertaken. He received no 
help from New York or elsewhere except interviews 
or other matter for publication in which the course of 
public sentiment in the East was set forth. 

By the end of 1891, he had put his State into the very 
front rank of Cleveland supporters without, however, 
making the smallest impression upon the machine. 
Under such conditions, it was naturally impossible for 
him to be chosen as a delegate. But he was in the State 
Convention held at Fresno on May 19, and from his 
place on the Resolutions Committee he procured the 
very strongest instructions for Cleveland and for the 
unit rule. It was possible to count upon nearly half 
the delegates as friends, and the remainder were open 
to control by means of' the overwhelming public senti- 
ment which Mr. Irish had aroused. 

While an effective orator, he did not know how to 
spell the word ''discretion" — if this process also in- 
volved the use of the letters making up the word "sur- 
render." When the California delegation was ready to 
start for Chicago, it followed the example formerly set 
by all representative bodies from that State; i.e., it filled 
two or three decorated Pullman cars with fruit, wines, 
flowers, and other characteristic products, and started 
on its way. Irish traveled in another part of the same 
train. At a long halt at some mountain station in 
Nevada, he was strolling up and down the platform, 
when a number of bystanders who knew him, from his 
stumping experience in their neighborhood, called upon 
him for a speech. He declined, saying to the assem- 
bled crowd, while pointing to the cars covered with flags 
and bunting: "Why don't you call upon those fellows 



142 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

in there? I am not traveling with this aggregation. 
My only purpose is to stay close enough to them, both 
here and in Chicago, to keep them from slipping their 
handcuffs." It need scarcely be said that with such 
a watchman there was never the smallest danger that 
the delegates from California would disobey instruc- 
tions, although assiduously courted because of their 
known personal inclinations. 



XIII 

I HAVE told this story, somewhat out of its place,, in 
order to explain the methods of work, the spontaneity 
of the movement, some of the difficulties involved, the 
kind of men enlisted in its unselfish and unrequited ser- 
vice, and also that the public may know and history 
record that it was no great concerted effort by a party 
machine, or the fabled work by some Napoleon of man- 
agement, or the promise or hope of office that brought 
about the third nomination of Grover Cleveland. 

Virtually, each State took care of itself. During all 
this preliminary period which continued until February 
22, 1892, no man was asked for money, none was paid 
for services, and no general conference was either called 
or held. While thousands of people were engaged, 
lovingly and devotedly, in this task, and so, from neces- 
sity, knew what they wanted, they were unaware of 
what others were doing, there was no commanding gen- 
eral, and, when it was all over, there was left no dis- 
tinctively Cleveland machine which could be used again. 
There were no agents traveling here and there, no cen- 
tral newspaper dominated for both the profit and the 



GROVER CLEVELAND 143 

glorification of a candidate— there was nothing but at- 
tachment to a man and a cause. No like campaign 
had been carried on before, and it is not probable that 
it belongs to that class of historical events which tend to 
repeat themselves. 



CHAPTER IX 

PREPARATION FOR 1 892 



THE work of wider scope of the preliminary cam- 
paign, which, I find from my correspondence files, 
was entered upon early in April, 1890, in a purely 
personal way, and only with the knowledge of Colonel 
Lamont, lasted, in this form, until about the first of 
February, 1892. It was not until the National Con- 
vention call, on January 8, followed by that, issued at 
unusually short notice, for a State convention to be held 
at Albany on February 22, to choose delegates, that 
Mr. Cleveland came consciously to think of himself as 
a candidate for a third nomination. 

New York politics had not come distinctly within the 
scope of the plan. Always difficult and the sport of 
faction, it was more fraught just then with diffi- 
culty and division than ever before. From whatever 
point the question might be viewed, Mr. Cleveland had 
ceased to represent any one State: he had become a 
national candidate, so that, if chosen at all, it must be by 
a popular movement covering the whole country. 

It would have been a contradiction in terms to con- 
duct a movement everywhere else without direct refer- 
ence to the machine and then to rely upon it in New 



GROVER CLEVELAND 145 

York. But the call for the convention, which, under 
ordinary circumstances, would have passed without 
notice, at once excited, in every State in the Union, loud 
and indignant protests. To realize that, with practi- 
cally no popular sentiment anywhere for any other, 
there was danger that the leading candidate would be 
deprived of the support of the delegation from the State 
of his residence, aroused deep resentment. 

It was clear, however, that there was both the power 
and the will to play the game to the end. The so-called 
Snap Convention ran its predestined course, and the 
delegation was instructed for David B. Hill. The con- 
test was then on, but fight in reality there never was 
after that, because Mr. Cleveland's nomination, which, 
on the day before, only awaited his consent to assure it, 
had become, the day after, a necessity, which neither 
assent nor declination could have affected in the smallest 
degree. 



II 

About the time that the convention call was issued, Mr. 
Cleveland accepted a long-standing invitation — newly 
pressed upon him by his friend and former Postmaster- 
General, Don M. Dickinson — to address the students of 
the State University of Michigan on Washington's 
birthday, at the very moment w-hen the convention of 
his own State would be nominally condemning him. 

Familiar, since November, 1889, with every step that 
he had taken in the preparation of more than thirty 
addresses of every kind, I had never seen him enter with 
so keen a relish and enjoyment upon any task as upon 
this one. A reader who will take the trouble to seek 

out, in his collected works, the address on "Sentiment 
10 



146 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

in Our National Life" will discover that, in this, the 
longest of all his occasional addresses, there is a fervor, 
an eloquence, an enthusiasm, an interest in his subject, 
and, at the same time, a pathos, seldom manifested in 
his utterances. . Unusual care had been taken in the dis- 
tribution of the printed slips, so that, in addition to the 
usual morning papers, the afternoon papers in the lead- 
ing cities, and many religious, agricultural, and mis- 
cellaneous weeklies, were supplied with advance copies. 
When, on the following day, the reprint of this address 
and its accompanying descriptions and incidents and 
the like reports of the Albany Convention appeared, side 
by side, it did not need any great prescience to see which 
was to be the more influential in creating sentiment. 



Ill 

When the State Committee had met in New York to 
issue the convention call, some of the friends of Mr. 
Cleveland asked to be heard in opposition to the pro- 
posed action, but their protests were not heeded. At 
Albany the same people appeared upon the scene and, 
in like manner, asked to be heard. The request was 
denied and the program was adopted without serious 
opposition. 

From that moment the nomination campaign took 
on new color, and an activity began which, within a 
short time, was to involve the entire country. The 
State of New York, not hitherto looked upon by 
the Cleveland advocates as an important or calculable 
element in the contest, became the centre— all aflame 
with effort and counter-effort. As if by magic, there 
sprang into being an organization known as the Anti- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 147 

Snappers. Within a week after the adjournment of 
the convention, the State was aroused. No county was 
so laggard that it did not take part in a movement which 
was soon to overwhehn all opposition. All the para- 
phernalia of State, county, city, and local committees 
was collected. A State convention was called for the 
purpose of sending to Chicago a contesting delegation 
—which, though it did not present its credentials, was, 
with its accompanying workers, probably quite as in- 
fluential as any ever seen in our great national gatherings. 
Money was collected in plenty and with little difficulty, 
so that it became easy to provide for meetings, speakers, 
and the news and arguments for newspapers, which were 
eager for everything that could be compiled. It early 
ceased to be a fight on the State machine and, in New 
York as well as the country at large, it was centred 
upon Tammany, 



IV 

The informal organization already described now 
became an important factor. It was the nucleus of an 
efficient working body and soon covered the country 
with its efforts. Hitherto, as already explained, it had 
played its part without money or even public knowledge 
of its existence. 

Of the newspaper men of the country, only Mr. Sereno 
S. Pratt, then correspondent of the Philadelphia Ledger, 
now secretary of the New York Chamber of Commerce, 
and Mr. Thomas F. Meehan, correspondent of the Bal- 
timore Sun, now one of the editors of the Catholic 
Encyclopedia, knew of the activities conducted from 
No. 57 Broadway. They saw Mr. Cleveland occasion- 
ally during these interim years. The work was either 



148 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

carried on through the press associations or, as became 
necessary in later days, by direct communication with 
newspapers. 

It was early determined that those who had held 
relations to the work already done should keep them- 
selves clear of the Anti-Snap 'movement. About the 
first of March I submitted to its leaders a memorandum 
setting forth what had been done, describing the 
machinery ready for operation, and outlining what, 
in my opinion, it was possible to do. As before, 
New York was taboo, but the remainder of the country, 
especially the South, was to be shown— by the Anti- 
Snappers, working in their own way — that not only 
could Mr. Cleveland carry his own State at the polls, 
but that probably no other candidate could do so. The 
necessary money was furnished, and steps were at once 
taken to enlarge our activities. 



Just three months lay before us in which to influence 
the latest of the State conventions. Within ten days an 
effective news bureau was in communication with all 
Democratic newspapers. Among other features sug- 
gested was one involving the simultaneous publication, 
in most of the large cities in which we could command 
the help of friendly newspapers, of local interviews 
almost wholly with business men— insisting upon the 
nomination of Mr. Cleveland. Within a week or so of 
each other, during April, May, and early June, influen- 
tial, widely circulated papers in Boston, New York, 
Providence, Springfield, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Wash- 
ington, Pittsburgh, Louisville, St. Louis, St. Paul, Chi- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 149 

cago, Cleveland, Richmond, Charleston, and New 
Orleans, gave columns, and in some cases pages, to this 
feature— making it home news. The note running 
through these interviews — all outlined from the New 
York office— was insistence upon the importance of Mr. 
Cleveland's nomination to the revival of business on 
large lines, and an expression of the belief that he could 
carry the State of New York. 

As for the newspapers, no money was expended and 
no central management was invoked or employed. They 
gathered and published the news which, lying about 
them, would not otherwise have been developed or used. 
This involved only small efifort in New York and no 
expense. The plans were outlined through local cor- 
respondents : leading men living in these cities, and the 
rest of the work they did without interference from 
anybody. Nothing was managed centrally that friends 
on the spot could do better and more quietly in their own 
neighborhoods. 

In addition, effective work was done through the 
same agencies with indifferent or weak-kneed papers in 
every important State ; but their editors or owners never 
so much as suspected that they were carrying out a 
policy suggested to them locally, but really settled in 
New York. It was interesting to note the enthusiasm 
shown by the editors and correspondents of influential 
papers of the best order, who entered into our plans. 
No credit was claimed by anybody at the centre. Ex- 
perience proves that, when men can have practical ideas 
which in time they come to treat as original, and are 
then left free to carry them out in their own way, it is 
possible to do effective service — so long as public, not 
personal, ends are served. 



I50 RECOLLECTIONS OF 



VI 

It would be impossible, in the promotion of any cause, 
great or small, to receive more wholesome or effective 
cooperation from the press of this country than we were 
able to command for more than three years. Hundreds 
of newspapers of which we never saw a copy, or whose 
editors neither then nor afterward ever heard of the 
work, carried forward the movement for Mr. Cleveland's 
nomination and reelection, wholly without pay or re- 
ward, or hope or thought of either. One often hears 
of the pride which comes from the exercise of open 
power. But no one can exaggerate the pleasure that 
follows as the effect of working entirely behind the 
scenes when he finds his devotion to a single object thus 
eft'ectively promoted by men and influences both unseen 
and unknown. 

It is impossible not to recall these demonstrated 
facts when one hears, now and again, the charge that 
everything relating to public opinion is false, corrupt, 
or selfish. I know this is not true and realize that agi- 
tations become dangerous, so far as the press is con- 
cerned, only because the agents or representatives of 
good men, worthy causes, or honest enterprises neglect 
their duty to themselves and the interests intrusted to 
them. In most cases they get the reward that neglect, 
ignorance, or over-confidence deserves. 

Mr. Cleveland's nomination and election in 1892 had 
only a small relation to party intrigue and management : 
they were effected by sensible and persistent appeals to 
a sane public sentiment which sent bosses and managers 
about their business, and asserted itself with a force 
then, as ever, surprising to such men. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 151 



VII 

Up to this time the late WilHam C. Whitney had taken 
no open part in the Cleveland movement looking to 1892, 
He was known to be opposed to the action of the Albany 
Convention and had made an earnest but vain effort 
to keep his friend Mr. Croker and Tammany from adopt- 
ing such an ill-starred and fatuous policy. His loyalty 
to Mr. Cleveland was never suspected or even doubted, 
but he had lost some of his influence. 

When the policy of writing the Ellery Anderson letter 
of February 10, 1891, was under consideration, few men 
were taken into counsel. Among them w^re Mr. 
Anderson himself, Charles S. Fairchild, Colonel Lamont, 
and Mr. Whitney. Of these, only the latter opposed the 
attitude assumed by Mr. Cleveland— who was firmly con- 
vinced of the necessity of taking such a strong position, 
thus early, so that no man could doubt where he stood. 

In matters of policy no man enjoyed Mr. Cleveland's 
confidence more than Mr. Whitney; but, as this was a 
question of principle, in the decision of which politicians 
had only the smallest influence with him, the Anderson 
letter was sent. As first drawn, according to the rough 
sketch, before me as I write, it entered pretty fully into 
a discussion of the merits of the question as it then pre- 
sented itself as a dominating issue. It was written and 
rewritten until, in its settled, final form, its length had 
been reduced by three-fourths. In each successive re- 
vision its tone against free silver became stronger and 
stronger until the closing sentence of this letter of less 
than two hundred words ended with bitter denunciation 
of "the dangerous and reckless experiment of free, un- 
limited, and independent silver coinage." 



152 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Notwithstanding his perfect agreement in principle 
with this declaration, Mr. Whitney believed that it was 
premature, unnecessary, and impolitic. He declared, 
with what for him was unusual vehemence, that it would 
be fatal to Democratic success in 1892, especially to the 
candidacy of Mr. Cleveland, whether for nomination or 
election. For a time the storm of denunciation and 
obloquy, which broke over its writer's head, seemed to 
justify these fears. Mr. Whitney, once out of the circle, 
simply kept his own counsel. The relations between the 
two men never changed as the result of this or any other 
difference : they were simply out of agreement for a time, 
upon a political question, and there was no more to be 
said or done. Public sentiment soon began to veer Mr. 
Cleveland's way — although this made no difference to 
him so far as his own attitude was concerned — but I do 
not recall any occasion during the succeeding year when 
the advice of Mr. Whitney was asked. 

The Anti-Snap movement aroused Mr. Whitney anew. 
He was too loyal to stand by and see his chief thus 
assailed in his own home. But, in his case, as in that of 
others who had been close to Mr. Cleveland, it was not 
deemed politic that he should come into the open. He 
tried, for a time, to bring about a compromise so that 
other New York candidates should retire, leaving the 
delegation free to represent the obvious sentiment of 
the State ; but, like most compromises, this did not com- 
mend itself to either side. 

He had given no sign, although some of the managers 
of the Anti-Snap movement, never able to account for 
certain contributions, credited them to Mr. Whitney. 
Whatever the truth of this, the latter, who still kept 
silence, sailed for Europe on the 12th of April, leav- 
ing behind him an interview which put him into the front 



GROVER CLEVELAND 153 

rank of Cleveland advocates and leaders. There was no 
long-er any doubt as to his position, and, this defined, 
everybody knew just what he could and would do. 



VIII 

The work was everywhere so well under way that, when 
Mr. Whitney returned on the i8th of May, after an 
absence of five weeks, the organization throughout the 
country had been perfected; thousands upon thousands 
of the best men of the country were enlisted ; the series 
of newspaper interviews had been printed in many 
widely distributed newspapers ; and practically all of the 
routine work had been completed. Thirty-five State 
and Territorial conventions had been held, of which 
twenty-four had given binding instructions for Cleve- 
land; seven were known to favor him, though unin- 
structed; while only four had either presented other 
candidates or protested against his nomination. 

No party manager had done anything to bring about 
cohesion among these disjointed and independent 
workers, that is, if Mr. Cleveland himself is thrown out 
of the account. The Anti-Snappers devoted themselves 
to New York, but sent agents into States where conven- 
tions were still to be held in order to carry the assurance 
that, with Mr. Cleveland as the candidate. New York 
was safe for the ticket; but, in general, they paid only 
slight attention to the whole political field. 

That task was soon undertaken on a broader and more 
comprehensive scale than had hitherto been possible. All 
the separate units of the army, organized without his 
direct aid, were now awaiting their general in the per- 
son of William C. Whitney. He was particularly fitted 



154 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

for this kind of work. Generally indifferent to details, 
putting off as long as possible all the larger things 
which came before him in life, he had the rare gift of 
doing within a few days the work that would require 
weeks on the part of the average leader. 

This marvelous power of concentration, amounting 
almost to genius, was now devoted to the Cleveland 
cause. Business, social duties — everything that can en- 
gage the attention of a man in the prime of life, rich, 
ambitious, ingenious, active, full of energy when needed 
—though seldom called out— were put aside for the. 
duties of the movement. After interviews with Mr. 
Cleveland and a few leading men hurriedly called from 
near-by States, within a week he had taken in the situa- 
tion. There was no longer fear of contagion from as- 
sociation with Anti-Snappers. He knew something of 
the work of my little machine: so I was asked to take 
to his residence my correspondence and budgets of in- 
formation from every outside State. There I spent 
hours with him alone, day after day, until, after study- 
ing what had been done, he had assimilated everything, 
found out who were the new men of light and leading, 
and discovered the weak points in the plans already de- 
vised. He was then ready for the business in hand. 



IX 

Thenceforward, without any claim or seeking on his 
part, many of the things done by others, especially by 
the Anti-Snappers, were credited to Mr. Whitney. In 
fact, most of them were suggested by Mr. Cleveland, 
who always knew ten men engaged in the effective work 
where one would come to Mr. Whitney's knowledge. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 155 

One had been engaged in two great national campaigns 
as a candidate for President and, for three years, had 
known every step taken in a third, while the other had 
the defects of the training incident to New York politics. 

This side of Mr. Cleveland's character, so little known, 
was never fully appreciated. Because he recoiled from 
the distribution of patronage, it was assumed that he 
did not know the game of the higher politics. It was, 
however, mainly because he knew so well the great mass 
of men who, performing real work, asked for little or 
nothing in return, while the self-seekers — often doing 
practically nothing— always pushed for a recognition 
^^•hich he knew they did not deserve. He was so accus- 
tomed to see the larger features of life that, looking upon 
politics from this point of view, he often failed, no doubt, 
to see the small concerns which must, from necessity, 
be a stock in trade with the State or local manager. 

But from whomever the impulse came, the Cleveland 
army now had a commander. Mr. Whitney not only 
assumed command, but he furnished money to make the 
collected information available. By the end of May we 
were able to communicate with our friends everywhere, 
with some authority, and to let them know just how the 
contest was going. Even before this, there was never 
the smallest doubt in the minds of the initiated as to 
the result of the Chicago Convention. The nomination 
of Mr. Cleveland was as fully assured on the i8th of 
May as it was five weeks later, and nothing that was 
done in the meantime on either side ever made any 
change in the conditions. 

The real task was to convince the country of this fact, 
and so to register this predestined result that the popular 
imagination should be impressed and thus give a mo- 
mentum to the electoral campaign which nothing could 



156 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

overcome. The urgent necessity was to elect a Presi- 
dent on the second Tuesday in November rather than 
in the closing days of June. Mr. Whitney's work so 
assured this that, from the day he took hold in earnest, 
one campaign so merged itself into the other that both 
became positively artistic in their conduct and ending. 



Mr. Cleveland had been waiting, rather impatiently, 
for Mr. Whitney's return, in order to hold a confer- 
ence of a few of the leading men hitherto engaged in 
promoting his interests, or rather those surrounding 
his name and the issues he had raised. I have before 
me, written in pencil with his own hand, on Mr. Whitney's 
embossed note-paper, the list of men to be invited. They 
were picked men asked, by telegraph, to meet at Mr. 
Whitney's house on a given day. It was the original 
idea to get representatives from about twenty States, 
one from each. This was afterward modified, owing to 
lack of time for reaching New York from the remoter 
States, and also for the purpose of keeping it as quiet as 
possible. 

On the ninth day of June, 1892, trusted men from 
nine or ten States came to New York, left their hotels, 
where they had been asked not to register their names, 
and began early to arrive at Mr. Whitney's house. No. 
2 West Fifty-seventh Street.^ It was a terrible day, 

1 Among those who attended the Conference were Judge William G. 
Ewing of Illinois; William F. Harrity of Pennsylvania; Samuel R. Honey 
of Rhode Island; Bradley B. Smalley of Vermont; Samuel E. Morss of 
Indiana; Don M. Dickinson of Michigan; William F. Vilas of Wisconsin; 
William L. Wilson of West Virginia; John E. Russell, Nathan Matthews, 
and Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts, and Francis Lynde Stetson of New 
York. Mr. Whitney presided, and George F. Parker was secretary. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 157 

and, looking back upon it, I do not remember another 
downpour of rain equal to it. The storm continued 
throughout the entire day, though severest in the morn- 
ing when the party were gathering. 

By eleven o'clock all those expected had arrived, and 
the Conference began, under Mr. Whitney's direction. 
The men all knew each other and the conditions they 
had met to discuss : so there was no waste of time. Each 
man made a report for his own State and for others 
within his knowledge. All available information was 
laid freely before the Conference. Thus, there was no 
concealment, no inside ring, nothing but a desire to get 
at the real truth of the situation. 

It was assumed that the organization of the conven- 
tion which was to meet in Chicago twelve days later was 
the first business in hand. The make-up of the Com- 
mittee on Credentials was considered and its constitu- 
tion settled so far as its dominating members were con- 
cerned. Then came the Committee on Resolutions, 
deemed the most vital: the ruling membership of 
which was not only considered but settled. The same 
process completed, on the same principles, the constitu- 
tion of the Committee on Permanent Organization. 
Naturally, the first contest was certain to be precipitated 
over the temporary organization, and, in order to deal 
with this problem, the attitude of the National Com- 
mittee was thoroughly canvassed. It was then in order 
to settle upon the Temporary Chairman, about which 
there was no question. William L. Wilson of West 
Virginia, himself a member of the Conference, was 
chosen. 

When the members sat down to luncheon about one 
o'clock the question of the Presidency of the conven- 
tion had been reached. There was no time to sus- 



158 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

pend business, and so the only roll-call of the day came 
upon this question, at table, when ex-Governor James E. 
Campbell of Ohio was chosen. 

The Vice-Presidency was not even so much as men- 
tioned. 

This routine disposed of, the really important busi- 
ness of the day was taken up: that of making the 
Conference a permanent body until the close of the Chi- 
cago Convention, or at least until Mr. Cleveland's nom- 
ination had been assured. In order to effect this object, 
the roll of the unrepresented States was called. A gen- 
eral discussion was held about the members who should 
be added, from unrepresented States, at the next meet- 
ing of the Conference — already fixed for eight o'clock 
on June 17, at Mr. Whitney's rooms in the Hotel 
Richelieu in Chicago. As each new member was 
chosen, some one in attendance was held responsible for 
his presence, and this process was continued until all 
the vacancies were filled. After this the nominating 
speeches were taken into account, the men who should 
make them were chosen, arrangements were made for 
Headquarters in Chicago, and the preliminary Confer- 
ence was at an end. 

This important meeting was never heard of by the 
newspapers either before it took place or afterward. 
From that day to this I have never seen any notice of its 
existence — to say nothing of its proceedings. It was a 
fitting close to a campaign which had been carried on 
for nearly three years without any of the methods of the 
brass-band. Both were conducted to promote a result 
thoroughly understood beforehand and in which per- 
sonal elements and the ambitions of the individuals en- 
gaged were negligible quantities. 




WILLIAM L. WILSON 
vho for a time was l'ostmastcr-G<;ncr;il under Mr. Cleveland 



GROVER CLEVELAND 159 



XI 

When the Conference met at the Hotel Richeheu on 
Friday evening, June 17— after formally opening its 
rooms at the Palmer House— it had representatives 
from about twenty States, and, while probably no event 
was then so fully assured as was Mr. Cleveland's nom- 
ination, his friends resolved to take up the task of 
organization just as if they were beginning anew. 

At the first meeting, Adlai E. Stevenson, soon to be 
nominated for Vice-President, was Chairman, and 
George F. Parker was Secretary throughout with 
power to name an assistant, for which place Edward J. 
McDermott of Kentucky was chosen. The roll of 
States was called; each man present reported upon the 
conditions in his jurisdiction, and, if asked, did the same 
for neighboring States which had no representative 
present. No conjectures were taken, no surmises or 
guesses would pass muster, and no stump speeches were 
made. When the evening's session was over, it dis- 
closed about three hundred sure delegates for Cleveland 
in less than half the States. 

Arrangements were then made for bringing to the 
next meeting men from still other States : but it was 
done with system. No element of the haphazard played 
a part in it. All the participants, as well as any others 
known to be safe, were assigned specific work for the 
next day. By their own desire, none of the Anti- 
Snapper delegates was invited to the Conference, but 
report was made about their work among the State 
delegations. 

The next evening the Conference met with repre- 
sentatives from probably ten more States. When the 



i6o RECOLLECTIONS OF 

roll was called, no attention was paid to the results re- 
corded at the preceding meeting, but account was taken 
of all changes, whether favorable or unfavorable. It 
was then that Mr. Whitney— in that positive way he had 
when all his powers were enlisted — began to enforce 
with rigor the necessity for absolute certainty. He 
would have no conjectures or probabilities or perhapses, 
and the secretaries would record only those about which 
there was absolute assurance with no chance of change. 
With this rigorous policy sometimes the weaker, who 
were also, generally speaking, the more enthusiastic 
members, would become discouraged, — though all would 
go to work with renewed determination. 

At the third meeting, Sunday night, practically every 
State was represented and Mr. Whitney became more 
and more insistent upon the rigor of the game, with the 
result that our numbers showed a reduction in some 
States, though an increase in the total. The leader, 
usually the perfection of suavity and good nature, was 
inclined to be irritable, and many a man of high repu- 
tation found himself brought to book if he hesitated 
or speculated. No one seemed to think of expressing 
an opinion of the final result, although there was none 
who did not feel perfectly certain of success. This 
function was Mr. Whitney's, and he was silent and 
grim, centred upon the work of the moment as if life, 
reputation, and fortune were at stake. It is seldom 
that, in one's association with men, he finds such con- 
centration as Mr. Whitney's, united with a force of 
character which, for the time, marks the commander 
dealing with a crisis and compelling obedience from even 
the strongest and most ambitious. 

This session was not the most encouraging, so far as 
enthusiasm went, but it was the most tense and, on the 



GROVER CLEVELAND i6i 

whole, the most effective because it showed, at the right 
time, both the strength and the weakness of our cause, 
and also brought out more distinctly the strong qualities 
of the leader who was sitting there without question at 
the head of a company of leaders. 

Monday was to be the important day in the history 
of the Conference. The National Committee was to 
meet and pass upon the first of the proposals, made in 
New York, and never again doubted or put to vote : the 
selection of a Temporary Chairman. After reaching 
Chicago, virtually no attention had been given to this 
question. The attitude of the delegates was deemed 
the one important matter. At the meeting of the Na- 
tional Committee, Colonel Watterson of Kentucky — 
one of its members and a delegate-at-large outside the 
Cleveland lines, distrusted and opposed at every turn 
by Mr. Whitney and the Conference — proposed for 
Chairman the name of an unknown Kentucky delegate, 
and represented that he was the choice of the Cleveland 
supporters, and the Committee chose him in opposition 
to Mr. Wilson. 

There was natural indignation among the members 
of the Conference and their friends, not because of 
defeat, but because it had come from a deception known 
to be deliberate, which, if overlooked, might mean mis- 
chief : but its real effect was to spur on to renewed effort. 
When the fourth session met at night, there was a feel- 
ing in favor of taking the matter into open convention, 
and this policy was proposed by Mr. Whitney himself. 
It produced practically the only discussion held during 
the Chicago meetings of this volunteer body, and it was 
disposed of through its withdrawal by the proposer him- 
self. Governor Campbell then declined to have his 

name presented for the Presidency of the convention, 
11 



i62 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

and Mr. Wilson was chosen by the Committee on Perma- 
nent Organization. 

At the last meeting the same policy was pursued, ex- 
cept that as the roll-call proceeded the sentiment of each 
State delegation was discussed more in detail. When 
the result was once recorded there was no review of it 
and no change of votes. Slowly, State by State, the 
estimate was made, and when, at its close, the figures 
showed about six hundred votes for Mr. Cleveland on 
the first ballot, Mr. Whitney threw himself back in his 
chair and, with obvious relief and satisfaction, said: 
"Well, that will do. There is no longer any doubt of 
the result, and no further question in my mind." It 
was about one o'clock on Tuesday morning when this 
conclusion was reached, and the long, hard fight was 
over, so far as the Cleveland Conference was officially 
concerned. 



XII 

During each day the official Cleveland Headquarters 
were open at the Palmer House from early morning 
until long after the return of the managing forces from 
the meetings of the Conference. The leaders were 
always on hand so that I or my assistant could reach 
them in the order of their need— Mr. Whitney being 
held in reserve. However, this often meant that he 
would see delegates or visitors who merely wanted to 
pay their respects : anything like seclusion being foreign 
to him in such an emergency. When I needed supplies 
I bought them and made requisition upon Mr. Whit- 
ney's secretary for the money. Among other expendi- 
tures was $2000 for buttons, badges, flags, and other 
souvenirs for which we had made no provision. In 



GROVER CLEVELAND 163 

the matter of money for expenses, Mr. Whitney 
was hberal, and, as he would permit no others to 
share them, the cost to him of this one week's campaign, 
going to Chicago, returning, and while there, was about 
$5000. 

Apropos of that liberality, verging upon lavishness, 
which distinguished Mr. Whitney, a story is told that, 
some years later, he met in Paris a rich man who had 
been nibbling at the Democratic nomination for Gov- 
ernor of New York. When his advice was asked he 
gave it freely: "Why, of course you ought to run. Go 
ahead, make your preliminary canvass, and when you 
have put up $200,000 or more, you will have become so 
much interested that you will go ahead and spend some 
money." 

He wanted results and did not care for money except 
for the pleasure of spending it, and of achieving his 
objects : but where his money went, his heart, his work, 
his power of concentration went with it. I never so 
much as heard him suggest bad or questionable uses of 
money in politics, but, by throwing himself into the 
scale, he could do more with one dollar than another 
man would do with five. This was shown in the result- 
ing campaign, in which there was a small but effective 
staff. The trifling amounts spent at Chicago and before 
going had generated a momentum which no after ex- 
penditure could create and nothing on the other side 
could resist. 



XIII 

The history of the Convention of 1892 is well known, 
and I shall not presume to rewrite it. But there is one 
feature in it to which sufficient attention has never been 



i64 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

paid. On Wednesday afternoon and night, that most 
dreary of all American political proceedings — the 
speeches naming candidates for the Presidency — went 
steadily on, one voice after another being lost or drowned 
in the attempt to make itself heard. The call of States 
had been completed and the doleful performance seemed 
to be at an end, in the thunder and lightning incident to 
a weird storm outside, and in spite of the floods of 
water that came through the roof of a fragile wigwam. 

It was thought that everything, pro and con, had been 
said, when just after midnight there came a shrill cry 
from the New York delegation, a man — with a real or 
feigned unwillingness — made his way up the crowded 
aisles, and amid mingled shouts of approval and de- 
mands for the roll of States, William Bourke Cockran 
claimed recognition. A hush fell upon the crowd, and 
even the swaying storm seemed hushed. The speaker 
began in a low, clear voice that made itself heard in the 
remotest limits of the eager crowd. Its first word was 
a challenge to a body of men who had made up their 
minds. But, without pause, the orator went on, with 
wit and pathos, with pleading and prediction, with sar- 
casm and irony — never with abuse or denunciation — 
with the utmost audacity, but always in taste, now with 
a rising inflection, then with a low, almost piteous 
appeal, until, when the clock had nearly marked half- 
past one in the morning, he concluded and walked to his 
seat on the floor. 

It was without doubt one of those masterful dis- 
plays of sustained elocution sometimes made in a na- 
tional convention. It was little less than marvelous 
that such a speech, delivered to 15,000 people of whom 
ninety-five per cent, were unsympathetic, could com- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 165 

mand a hearing just as the pent-up excitement of a week 
of bitter contest had reached its highest development. 

From the floor of the convention a delegate moved 
the call of States, and, without a word of answer or 
of protest, the voting began. Thousands kept tally, 
and it soon became apparent that not a man in the Cleve- 
land column had wavered. When the vote of the last 
Territory had been recorded, the tally was made up, and 
the president of the convention announced that Grover 
Cleveland had received 61 6>^ votes, oratory had regis- 
tered the most humiliating failure of our national 
history. 



M' 



CHAPTER X 

CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT 



R. Cleveland was enough of a politician not 
to neglect his own interests after he had been 
nominated, and he had too much of this char- 
acter to be continually interfering with the chosen 
management. 

In the essentials, where the ordinary political man- 
ager fails, he was a leader ; but, when it came to details, 
to the routine of this or that formal duty, he seldom 
interfered. He would discuss with his friends who 
might be or ought to be the chairman of a national com- 
mittee, or the routine manager of what is known as the 
Campaign or Executive Committee; but, when the 
larger ideas were properly dealt with, he did not think 
that it either became him or was necessary that he 
should know or care how every petty thing was done. 
A secretary, or the head of some bureau, important in 
his own eyes, and perhaps even in those of the manage- 
ment, was almost certain to be unknown to Mr. Cleve- 
land for the reason that he did not deem such a post 
important. 

In management, as in other great affairs in life, he 
did not allow the trees to obscure his view of the forest 

i66 



I 



GROVER CLEVELAND 167 

of which they were a part. As he understood the 
people, he did not think it w^as possible to fool them very 
long either by names or by any thimblerigging process. 
He had never been the creature of management, and 
so he did not permit it to pose as his creator. Reason 
and experience taught him that, after all, a candidate 
of dignity and character must go his own way and not 
put himself unreservedly into the hands of some 
committee. 



II 

In spite of the strong, underlying sentiment which had 
forced the nomination, the question of management was 
not entirely free from difficulty. He had been nom- 
inated without assistance from the machine of his own 
State, and yet the opposing elements in it had to be con- 
sidered. As party men, they had acquiesced, but there 
was an undertone of surliness. Mr. Cleveland would 
make no overtures, and as for promises or pledges, he 
w'ould not make these to his friends, much less to those 
who had opposed him to the bitter end. He could con- 
ciliate where a principle was involved only by thus con- 
vincing opposition that compromise, which to his mind 
was often synonymous with surrender, did not enter 
into his character. 

In spite of the impetus it had received, the campaign 
for the election moved along slowly. The machine was 
much smaller than usual, so that the Headquarters in 
Fifth Avenue, with the seventy-five or eighty members 
of its staff, contrasted strangely with the vast number 
employed at the Republican Headquarters, and still more 
so with the three hundred or three hundred and fifty 
who trod upon each other's heels in the Parker cam- 



i68 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

paign twelve years later. Few of the usual political 
bounders— who, it has seemed to me, must rest for the 
four years between jobs — were to be found drawing 
money in 1892. Some petty jealousies at the top were 
composed by Mr. Cleveland, who was a successful peace- 
maker in such cases. 

The State Committee of New York was thought to be 
more or less backward, and some men distasteful to 
Mr. Cleveland came to the front. For a time he was 
critical, but he never interfered, and it must be said 
that the men whom he most suspected proved efficient 
in the work of commanding the vote of the State. They 
were politicians and they wanted fair treatment, and 
when they had received assurances— which they ought 
not to have needed — that there were to be no reprisals, 
they worked with a fidelity which made them in later 
years such strong* friends and supporters that Mr. 
Cleveland freely admitted that he had been mistaken. 
But, after he had eaten his celebrated dinner with the 
dissatisfied elements at the Victoria Hotel, when, by 
main force and that positiveness which knew no defeat, 
he had so conquered as to extort from Richard Croker 
the confession, 'T think the Old Man is right," every- 
thing was plain sailing so far as faithful management 
by the leaders and support by their following were 
concerned. 

There were the usual money difficulties at one stage 
of the campaign, but these were overcome. He did 
not return to New York until later, but kept in close 
touch with public sentiment, and also impressed his 
opinions upon the management through the visits of 
trusted friends to Buzzard's Bay. The yacht Oneida, 
Commodore Benedict in command, made many an un- 
heralded voyage out of New York on Saturdays, and 



i^i^^SFT*" 




E. C. BliNHDlCT 
Owner of the yacht 0?teiJii, and personal friend of Mr. Cleveland 



GROVER CLEVELAND 169 

even the fact that it had found anchorage In Massa- 
chusetts waters the following morning was not always 
reported in the newspapers. 

To a degree far less than usual were the drum and 
trumpet sounded. Mr. Cleveland made the response to 
the notification speech, which had then become an impor- 
tant feature in a Presidential campaign, before a great 
assembly at Madison Square Garden but no other 
public appearance. His letter of acceptance and a 
short letter in which he rebuked, with great severity, 
a proposed woman's club auxiliary movement, were his 
only declarations. He issued no pronunciamentos or 
statements affirming one report or denying another. 
But that steady stream of letters which had stood him 
in stead during the Presidential interim never stopped. 
He probably knew the trend of sentiment better than 
any member of the National Committee. 



Ill 

On the second Saturday before the election, he sent for 
me to come to his house. I found him deeply interested, 
and he said : 

Stevenson has not yet written any letter of accept- 
tance, and now I have trustworthy information to 
the efifect that the Republicans are coming out in a 
great exposure, all along the line, in this coming week, 
of his supposed record, more than twenty years ago, 
as a greenbacker. I know how sound his opinions 
are ; but it is necessary for us to meet this threatened 
movement by spiking our opponents' guns. Steven- 
son promised me yesterday that he would write this 
letter, but he has left town without doing it, and has 



lyo RECOLLECTIONS OF 

gone either to Charlestown or to Charleston, West 
Virginia, I don't know which, to make speeches. 
Now, I know it is a hard journey, but I want you to 
find out w^here he is, start this afternoon, and get 
his letter out at the earliest moment. Perhaps [he 
said in something of an aside, although we were 
alone] when you are on the train, in order to save 
time, it might be well for you to prepare something 
by way of suggestion ! 

This errand, although it seemed simple, when I took the 
earliest train for the capital of West Virginia, involved 
1 200 miles of travel. As soon as I was seated in the Pull- 
man car I bethought me of Mr. Cleveland's suggestion, 
and, taking out a pad, before reaching Trenton I had 
written a tentative Vice-Presidential letter of accept- 
ance. It was strong on sound money and the tariff, 
with incidental treatment of other questions then cur- 
rent, and ran, perhaps, to four hundred words. 

Upon arrival at Charleston the next day about noon, 
and after further revision of the letter, I was met at 
the station by the candidate for Vice-President, the Gov- 
ernor of West Virginia, the chairman of the State Com- 
mittee, and divers other politicians of position. When, 
in reply to a question about my errand, I told Mr, 
Stevenson that I had come for his letter of acceptance, 
he replied : **Yes, I thought as much." On the way up to 
his hotel, he took me apart, where it was possible to 
speak, and asked: "Did you happen to think of writing 
anything on the way down?" With some verbal 
changes suggested by myself, the draft was accepted. 
Dovetailed with it as a conclusion was an extract from 
one of the candidate's recent speeches on the Force Rill. 
In this way the letter was made. A type-writer operator 



GROVER CLEVELAND 171 

was found, fair copies were made, and filed by seven 
o'clock in the evening with the press associations which 
had received notice at their central offices. 

The midnight train carried me back to New York, 
and, by the time of my return, in every newspaper in the 
United States there had appeared the letter of accept- 
ance which spiked the Republican guns so completely 
that the srreenback record never was heard of again. 
This incident will show how keen Mr. Cleveland was, 
as a politician, when principle was involved, and how 
quickly his mind grasped all the necessary details on 
such occasions. 



IV 

On election night, November 8, when both the telegraph 
companies installed instruments in Mr, Cleveland's 
house, 12 West Fifty-first Street, all the officers of the 
committee resorted thither, so that the regular Head- 
quarters were left in due time to minor employees and 
their friends. As the returns came in, favorably from 
beginning to end, the number of friends increased with 
each succeeding hour. About twelve o'clock, the clam- 
orous, swaying crowd of people outside made it de- 
sirable that Mr. Cleveland should say a few words to 
dismiss them for the night. This was done with a 
dignity, an impressiveness, a seriousness, and, with all, 
a readiness which showed his ability to speak well with- 
out preparation. 

More and more of those who had borne the heat and 
burden of the day kept coming to the house, so that 
until perhaps three o'clock the dining-room was kept 
open for a final reunion. Mr. Cleveland's manner was 
grave, thoughtful, and silent. He was no doubt turn- 



172 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

ing over in his mind that saying of his so often used as 
an answer to those who, not knowing him well", were 
wont to express at odd times and places, the hope that 
he would accept a third nomination : "Sir, it is a solemn 
thing to be President of the United States." As the 
party broke up, one friend or associate after another 
left with regret, until, when Colonel Lamont had gone, 
Mr. Cleveland and I were left alone. Then at four 
o'clock in the morning his parting word at the door was : 
"Well, Parker, none of these men or all of them together 
know or realize as you and I do how this thing has been 
done." 

Thus there closed, in victory at every point— in con- 
ventions. State and national, in elections, in States never 
before carried for the Democratic party, but, best of all, 
in a friendly and responsive public sentiment every- 
where—perhaps the most remarkable of all the personal 
campaigns ever conducted under the workings of free 
government. The work had been done in behalf of a 
man — without the magnetism supposed to be a neces- 
sity — who was indifferent to his own promotion or 
advancement, with an individual ambition already satis- 
fied, and with little of that love of power for its own 
sake which so often moves men. 



My own position was never personal, was accidental in 
its opportunity, which, as it had come without thought 
or seeking;, must be met without ambition or aspiration 
for recognition or individual preferment. It was a 
work of love, without requital or the thought of pos- 
sibility of it. For more than two years of its course, 



GROVER CLEVELAND 173 

it was without even so much as the contribution of a 
postage-stamp to the small expenses incurred. When 
mentioned for this place or that, on the National Com- 
mittee or in the management, or when tenders were 
made of such places, they were persistently declined 
because they would have interfered with the task in hand 
by arousing animosities as well as by reducing the abil- 
ity to keep down jealousy or competition. When it 
was all over, Mr. Cleveland had perhaps paid out about 
$125— the cost of printing the slips of his speeches — 
and my own money outlay had probably amounted to 
$40 or $50 for postage and other petty expenses. 

At the end of that time, when the uncertain little rill 
of public favor had become a resistless torrent, it could 
be said that we had hit no foul blow; had made no 
claims that were not fully justified ; no demagogic word 
or sentence had been spoken ; no abuse of opponents or 
neglect of friends could be imputed; idea and principle 
had been' behind every policy or movement ; no concep- 
tion of debauching the suffrage had even found sug- 
gestion or thought; while no bitter enmities had been 
aroused and no serious jealousies encountered. 

After these three years of effort, the President-elect 
could come to his high office without an unpaid obliga- 
tion and with the assurance that he had always given 
more than he had taken. Is there any cause for wonder 
that he became President for the second time on March 
4, 1893, the- most loftily independent man whose for- 
tune it has been, thus far in our annals, to deliver an 
inaugural address in the open air at the east front of 
the Capitol ? Or is there any more reason, on the other 
hand, for surprise that henceforward, during four years 
of anxiety and dread, he should have been the most 
lonely figure in our history? 



CHAPTER XI 



MAKING THE SECOND CABINET 



WHEN the election was over, I had thought to 
drop out of poHtical work. It was both un- 
congenial and unprofitable. But my release 
was not yet to come. At once the task of forming a 
Cabinet was taken up: in fact, the time for doing this 
is always comparatively short, everything considered. 

The same old difficulty of dealing with the press came 
up for settlement. Mr. Cleveland simply would not con- 
sent to see representatives of the newspapers or press 
associations, day by day, and to tell them what he had 
done or had in mind. So it came back to the old plan of 
asking Colonel Lamont's advice. At his suggestion and 
with the ready assent of the President-elect, it was 
arranged that I should form a news-syndicate, so that 
each day, when there was anything to publish, it would 
be given out to my papers with authority. 

It was interesting and remunerative, but it made me, 
for the time, an unpopular and reprobated person in 
newspaper offices other than the few whose editors had 
made arrangements to get the news. It had the com- 
pensation, however, of putting me into even closer and 
more continuous association than before with Mr. 
Cleveland. Every day, Sundays excepted, I went to his 




PhutugrajjhrJ bj 



JOHN CRIMIN CAKLISLK 
Secretary of the Treasury. Marcli, 1893-1897 



GROVER CLEVELAND 175 

house and reviewed the situation in its changes or de- 
velopments. With the exception of two, no man's name 
was considered for a Cabinet place who had not come 
before us during the preceding three years. Most of 
them had served in our little improvised volunteer army. 



II 

Three days after the election I spent the whole after- 
noon with ]\Ir. Cleveland going over the field and dis- 
cussing the foundations, not yet laid, of the Cabinet. 
He had evidently reached a decision in only a single case. 
He had made up his mind to tender the Treasury De- 
partment to John G. Carlisle, then Senator from Ken- 
tucky, for whom his admiration was unusually strong. 
On this occasion he said : 

I believe that this is not only the very best selection 
that could be made for this office at such a vital time, 
but in this one instance I am willing to look ahead. 
You know me well enough to know that I care noth- 
ing for the perpetuation of personal power and do 
not often think of it; but our party has just come 
back with a striking victory, as the result of which it 
ought to maintain its hold for many years to come. 
It cannot do this if it enters upon its new duties in a 
haphazard sort of way. So, in thinking the matter 
over, I have reached the conclusion that it would be 
a wonderful thing if we could look forward to Mr. 
Carlisle as successor to the Presidency in the term to 
follow mine. I realize how dangerous this is, and 
that both history and precedent are against its suc- 
cess, but as T look at it now it seems to be a thing 
that ought to be kept in mind. 



176 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

The intention was noble and the motive patriotic, but 
as one looks back over the history of the period which 
has intervened, the result of the failure of those plans 
and the substitution of a policy of ruin is more than pa- 
thetic—it is pitiable, as Mr. Cleveland often had occa- 
sion to say in referring to it in later years. 



Ill 

At this interview, I had occasion to bring forward and 
to discuss the names of five men fitted to become Mr. 
Cleveland's advisers. Of these, two declined appoint- 
ment, and the remainder were sworn into his Cabinet 
after his second inauguration. Naturally, these sugges- 
tions were not made at random. As the conclusion had 
been reached that no responsible officials in the pre- 
vious administration should be preferred for the same 
posts in the second, a good many obvious men were 
eliminated at once. Only two men, other than Mr. 
Cleveland, had been voted for in the National Conven- 
tion, and one of these was on my list as rejecting the 
tender of office ; the other, David B. Hill, was just enter- 
ing the United States Senate. 

This served to increase the keenness of my interest in 
Cabinet candidates. I was attached first to Mr. Cleve- 
land's personal friends — of whom the late Wilson S. 
Bissell, standing out from all others, was one of the 
three to whom allusion has been made— and then to the 
men who had been most useful in the delicate and per- 
sistent campaign of the preceding three years. One of 
these had suggested it originally, advised in its various 
steps for the first two years, and had only dropped out 
because of ill health, which made it necessary for him 
to go abroad. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 177 



When I suggested the name of Daniel S. Lamont for 
appointment as Secretary of War, I could see that Mr. 
Cleveland had not thought of it, so that it came to him 
as a genuine surprise. "Why," he replied, "the Colonel 
would command more influence in his old place as 
private secretary than he could possibly have in the 
Cabinet." As, personally, I was deeply interested in my 
suggestion because, of my own knowledge, I knew that 
Colonel Lamont would take nothing below a Cabinet 
office and that he was averse even to that, I replied that 
while this judgment was highly complimentary, there 
was such a thing in politics as promotion. Mr. Cleveland 
said he had not thought of this phase. The subject was 
never again mentioned, but it was less than a week until 
the tender was made of this office. 

The third name was that of Hoke Smith of Georgia, 
a stranger to Mr. Cleveland, but one of the most efficient 
workers in the renomination campaign. In this case, 
I was enlisted both personally and politically, believing 
that this recognition of the younger men of the South 
was no more than just and that the appointment would 
fully justify itself and satisfy many party and patriotic 
forces. In my zeal, I visited Justice Lamar in Wash- 
ington, only a few weeks before his death, and was able 
to command his hearty cooperation in presenting his 
friend and fellow-citizen as one of his successors in the 
office of Secretary of the Interior. When Mr. Smith 
returned to New York upon a second visit to Mr. Cleve- 
land, he was tendered a place in the Cabinet. 



IV 

There was a strong desire on Mr. Cleveland's part 

to get a Secretary of the Navy from New England, 
12 



1/8 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

but after three declinations the office was tendered to 
Colonel Hilary A. Herbert of Alabama, who was orig- 
inally intended for another post, and the Attorney-Gen- 
eral, in the person of Mr. Richard Olney, with a strong 
New York backing, was drawn from New England. 

The Secretaryship of State, conferred upon Judge 
Walter Q. Gresham, was the one surprise of the Cabi- 
net. I have never yet heard of any man to whom Mr. 
Cleveland had spoken about this office in connection 
with the appointee, and nobody was ever able to ex- 
plain how or why he was chosen. The President-elect 
had found it difficult to get the right man. He was so 
sorely tempted that, making an exception to his rule, 
he tendered the place to Mr. Bayard, who strongly 
advised against his own appointment and declined. The 
President had done this against his own judgment and 
as an evidence of his despair. He was really most de- 
sirous that the former Secretary of State should become 
the first United States Ambassador, under the law just 
then enacted. 



When the time came to choose a Secretary of Agricul- 
ture, it was found that, instead of being one of the 
easiest Cabinet places to fill, because it was the newest, 
it was, in reality, the most difficult. Almost without 
notice, it had assumed a political importance not hitherto 
suspected. The place was tendered to the late John E. 
Russell of Massachusetts, with whom the President- 
elect had been brought into congenial touch during his 
first term and in the interim. Mr. Russell's health was 
not firm ; so the offer was declined. The next choice was 
Horace Boies, whose service as Governor of Iowa had 
just ended. His name had been presented to the Chi- 




|li;cujks 



^vv^^c- 



Of Nebraska, Secretary of Agriculture, 1893-1897 



GROVER CLEVELAND 179 

cago Convention a year before, and, besides, he had 
been an acquaintance of the President-elect in Buffalo 
many years previously. His age, combined with some 
political considerations, led him to decline. 

Both these refusals had been rather anticipated, and 
so the one name held in reserve was that of J. Sterling 
Morton of Nebraska, whose enemies were nearly as ac- 
tive as his friends. As an old friend of Mr. Morton, I 
was requested to sound certain of the anti-silver Demo- 
crats of the West, of whom he was a recognized leader. 
The two men had never met, but it was soon made clear 
to Mr. Cleveland that he was considering the name of a 
man who, for the lifetime of a generation, had done 
yeoman service in the West, both for sound money and 
for tariff revision along liberal lines. However, in the 
factional divisions in his State, Mr. Morton had actively 
opposed Mr. Cleveland's nomination in 1884, uniting 
with it some personal bitterness. When this was men- 
tioned to the President, he threw the charge aside with 
contempt, saying: "We cannot afford, in this crisis, 
when, if ever, such men are needed, to let personal con- 
siderations enter into account. Under no circumstances, 
will I, in this case or any other, allow them to influence 
my opinion or action." 

After the appointment had been tendered and ac- 
cepted, Mr. Morton came to New York, and I had the 
pleasure of introducing them at the Lakewood cottage 
in which Mr. Cleveland stayed for a time before going 
to Washington. The two men were not only associated 
officially during the second administration, but became 
intimate friends. No more pertinent illustration than 
this ever came to my attention of Mr. Cleveland's ability 
to discard personal prejudice, although there were 
others like unto it. 



i8o RECOLLECTIONS OF 



VI 

While the work of Cabinet construction was under 
way, many petitions and letters came to the President- 
elect in favor of active but little-known men who could 
hardly be said to have reached the unquestioned rank 
which would entitle them to consideration. In two or 
three such instances Mr. Cleveland would say: "Now, 
if I were only free to tender the Commissionership of 
Pensions or of Patents, or any important independent 
office, to this man, what a comfort it would be to me and 
what a benefit to the public service: but a place in the 
Cabinet is impossible, and so it is probable that I can- 
not avail myself of his obvious fitness for some impor- 
tant office." In one or two cases, notably that of Judge 
Lochren of Minnesota, he was able to carry this policy 
into effect ; but when the demand was made for a Cabi- 
net appointment or nothing, it was, of necessity, the 
latter. 

Among the letters received from individuals one of 
the most interesting, in every way, was from John P. 
Irish of California, of whom mention has been made 
in these recollections. It was written on January 30, 
1893, and forwarded to me, with directions to present 
or not, as might seem fitting. After explaining that 
Democrats in the legislatures of Oregon, Idaho, and 
Wyoming, on their own motion, had officially indorsed 
him to Mr. Cleveland for Secretary of the Interior and 
that those in the California Legislature proposed, with 
his approval, to do the same, the letter continued : 

I have declined assent to this, and, as the action taken in 
other States may reach you, it seems proper to say that I have 
felt that candidacy, in the current meaning thereof, for a place 



GROVER CLEVELAND i8i 

in your official family is not becoming, and that the discussion 
of my name in that connection by the press here and elsewhere 
and the other acts, no doubt suggested thereby, are volun- 
teered entirely ; and, so far as they seem to make me a candi- 
date, are not in line with my own sense of propriety; though 
as evidences of confidence, good feeling and friendship they 
impress me as they should any man who loves appreciation of 
his efforts for a good cause. 

Proceeding, the letter paid Mr. Cleveland the follow- 
ing tribute, which, when read to him, drew tears : 

Fifty and more years ago, when the Western prairies were 
untracked, the way across them from one post to another was 
sometimes marked by a deep furrow, plowed under contract 
by some stout pioneer. Half a century later, I have found 
these furrows still plainly marked, and there has risen before 
me again the team, the plow, and the plowman drawing the 
guiding mark through a wilderness. 

After we are all gone, men will pause by the furrow you are 
to make in the history of our country and will say, "Here the 
plowman passed, and time toils in vain to conceal his furrow." 
My friend, you are selecting your team, but you and no other 
must hold the plow. If I should go into history as one who 
helped to pull it, I should be glad, but I shall have always the 
pleasure of believing in the plowman and knowing that the 
furrow is to endure. 



VII 

If I were asked to name the one ptiblic man in whom, of 
all others outside his official associates, Mr. Cleveland 
reposed most confidence and for whom he had the 
deepest admiration, I should have no hesitation. It 
would be William L. Wilson of West Virginia. Coming 
into relations with him when the tarifif question was 
forced to the front in 1887, he recognized at once the 
comprehensive knowledge of this mountain college pro- 



i82 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

fessor, whose most important schooling came from his 
boyish service in the Confederate army. 

It would have been impossible for anybody even to 
meet Mr. Wilson without coming under the spell of that 
charm which, with all his ability and information, was 
his distinguishing characteristic. These two men were 
so widely different in origin, training, and experience that 
it could only have been the attractive power of opposites 
that could have drawn them together. In any event, 
so far as the President was concerned, William L. 
Wilson was soon added to the intellectual group made 
up of men in the Cabinet, with John G. Carlisle, Roger 
Q. Mills, Clifton R. Breckinridge, John E. Russell, 
William D. Bynum, and others of the same type, who, 
in both House and Senate, had borne the heat and bur- 
den of the day in the discussion of the Mills Bill, which 
was the outcome of the message of 1887, or in the dis- 
cussion outside both Houses of Congress. 

During the interim between Presidential terms, when 
the discussion was going on all over the country, until 
it assumed the proportions of a great moral agitation, 
Mr. Cleveland still maintained his relations with Mr. 
Wilson, so far as was consistent with the separation in- 
cident to distance. He insisted upon keeping him to the 
front when great public occasions were under discussion, 
and his friends, knowing this and sharing his admira- 
tion, made Wilson the President of the Chicago Con- 
vention of 1892, in spite of some disinclination on his 
own part, because of bad health and physical unfitness 
for a post of such requirements. Just on the eve of his 
departure for Washington for his second inauguration, 
Mr. Cleveland, with a suddenness not unusual with him 
when a new idea came into his mind, said one day : 



GROVER CLEVELAND 183 

"Parker, do you know what I would do with WilHam 
L. Wilson if I could?" Confessing my ignorance of 
mind-reading, I naturally replied that, of course, I did 
not know. "Well, I will tell you," he continued. "I would 
appoint him Assistant to the President, with a salary of 
$10,000 a year. As the executive office is now organ- 
ized it can deal, with a fair amount of efficiency, with the 
routine affairs of Government; hut if the President has 
any great policy in mind or on hand he has no one to 
help him work it out. Yes, I tell you that, while I 
should hate to take Wilson out of Congress, I would 
make him my Assistant if I could. I have even half a 
notion to offer him the place anyhow and pay him out 
of my own pocket." 

If the world had known this high esteem of the man 
there would have been no surprise that Mr. Cleveland 
was so interested in both the man and the statesman as 
to pay the last tribute of respect by going a long dis- 
tance to his funeral and by the activity that he showed 
in raising money for an appropriate memorial to his 
friend at Washington and Lee University. On both 
sides it was one of the most unselfish of the many friend- 
ships it has been my privilege to observe in a life which 
has brought me in contact with many hundreds of pub- 
lic characters. 



VIII 

During the protracted consideration of the names pre- 
sented, from every quarter, for high honors, the Presi- 
dent-elect would often, in moments of leisure or during 
a discussion, give me his ideas not only of the qualities 
necessary for the individual men to be chosen for high 



1 84 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

executive posts, but also, incidentally, of his judgment 
of the educative power of our institutions. From his 
various conversations on these subjects I condense the 
following expression of opinion: 

While it is an absolute necessity, under our tra- 
ditions, for a President-elect to take the greatest 
pains in balancing party position and considerations. 
State of residence, and to bear in mind that his 
Cabinet associates must have capacity for executive 
work, I am not at all sure that these always produce 
the best results. It strikes the public imagination to 
choose men who have been governors of their States, 
or United States Senators, or active in party man- 
agement; but it often turns out that these men are 
taken away from something they know, to which 
they have come by gradual steps, only to discover 
that it is difficult for them to adjust themselves to 
those national problems which, although they may 
not be larger or more important, are, at least, en- 
tirely different from those to which they have been 
accustomed. 

He confidently believed that, if precedent only per- 
mitted it, and he had the time, he could get a perfectly 
competent Attorney-General in the county-seat of any 
county with which he was familiar. "I should not hesi- 
tate," he added, "in case of necessity, to put myself and 
the office into the hands of the best country lawyer in 
these towns. And the same conclusion applies to any 
other Cabinet department, unless it might be those of 
the State and Treasury, where some special knowledge 
and even experience are desirable." 

At another time, when emphasizing this idea in a 
way he liked to do, he said : 



GROVER CLEVELAND 185 

To me this is the best possible evidence of the suc- 
cess of our system of self-government. So long as 
we can go out and, by seeking, find, almost any- 
where, men with the fundamental qualities for carry- 
ing out our political ideas, there is little likelihood 
that any overmastering man will ever become either 
a necessity or be able to command sufficient power 
to make himself a danger to our institutions. It is 
this sense of individual capacity, verified by its public 
discovery when needed, that is the sheet-anchor of 
our safety. 

It always seemed to me, when listening to these un- 
usual opinions, that I could read the mind of the speaker 
and trace their genesis to the modest career of the Buf- 
falo lawyer who rose in just two years from active pro- 
fessional work to be President-elect of the United 
States, which, as I once told him, seemed to me the 
quickest and most amazing rise to permanent power and 
influence seen in history. 



IX 

The new Cabinet did not strike the public imagination 
so favorably as that chosen in the first administration. 
On the whole, it was probably stronger as a body, looked 
at from the point of view of executive ability. But the 
Cabinet had so receded in relative importance, in the 
public mind, that the President had become the one man 
to whom the country looked. Some of the new men 
were to demonstrate a breadth of outlook and to gain 
the confidence both of the President and the country. 

The series of crises through which the new adminis- 
tration was to pass, from the first day of its life to the 



1 86 GROVER CLEVELAND 

last, made it impossible for the President to devote that 
attention to minor affairs which had formerly charac- 
terized him, and thus compelled him to give larger 
authority to his chosen advisers. He could no longer 
either do or supervise all the work. Besides, although 
the tenure had not been continuous, the second adminis- 
tration did have the benefit of the precedents estab- 
lished by the first. In the verdict of history, the latter 
must take a rank incomparably higher than the former : 
but this would have been impossible if the first had not 
set the limits both of the President's policy and of his 
capacity for work. Every man knew what he must do 
and that, if he did not, the President himself would 
undertake and carry it out in some way or other. 



CHAPTER XII 

SOME FOREIGN CONDITIONS 



FROM what I have already said, it will be under- 
stood that it was no part of my purpose to take 
a place in the public service under Mr. Cleveland. 
I was especially determined that under no possible cir- 
cumstances would I accept anything in Washington; 
but Colonel Lamont insisted that I should be appointed 
to some position, and, without my knowledge, so inter- 
ested himself with the President-elect that, well along 
towards the Inauguration Day, the latter, in his office 
one day, said with his usual bluntness: "Parker, the 
Colonel tells me I ought to tender you some posi- 
tion. You know my attachment for you, but I do think 
it is a shame that you should be asked to take an office. 
The pay is inadequate, the tenure uncertain, and the 
effect often hurtful to the appointee. Men like you and 
John P. Irish ought to be editing Democratic newspa- 
pers somewhere at salaries of $10,000 or $15,000 a 
year." 

As I had never brought up the matter and the Presi- 
dent did not mention it, it was not again referred to 
until some time after the inauguration. In the mean- 
time, I had declined three assistant secretaryships, ten- 

187 



i88 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

dered by prospective Cabinet officers, and the head of 
one of the most important bureaus. Colonel Lamont — 
by this time Secretary of War— had insisted upon my 
appointment as Consul to Manchester, and the Presi- 
dent thought he had met his wishes. He was only con- 
vinced of his mistake when, sending for the official 
nomination papers, he discovered that I had been ac- 
credited to Birmingham — a substitution for which I 
have always thanked the Department of State, because 
thereby I was enabled to renew some associations of 
earlier life. 

Birmingham was an interesting and desirable United 
States consulate. It was free, then as now, from 
sailors, tramps, and professional tourists — the three 
pests of the consular service. Its work was responsible 
without being arduous, its people were more receptive 
to American influences of the best type than in most 
other places in the service, and its relation to the miscel- 
laneous metal trades gave it a perpetual interest for the 
student of economic questions. Its social and literary 
traditions were of a high order and closely related to 
America, while its kaleidoscopic politics gave it an inter- 
est which enabled an American to study conditions in 
England at the most suggestive point. 



II 

Although far removed from the President, I did not 
lose touch with public affairs— not even the attentions 
of the office-seekers were wanting. When the various 
campaigns were over, it was easy to foresee that more 
or less pressure would be brought upon the President 
through me. So I insisted that under no circumstances 



GROVER CLEVELAND 189 

would I have anything to do with the ever-present pat- 
ronage. Our relations had enabled him to command 
all the information in my possession, and so he had no 
need for my opinion in addition to his own. This view 
pleased him, because he was always making apology to 
his real friends when he had occasion to trouble them 
about the minor offices. 

In spite of these precautions, many applications came 
through me; they even followed me to Birmingham by 
cable. Still, except when my opinion was asked, the 
agreement was in full force, and it was, perhaps, fortu- 
nate for my own peace of mind that involuntary exile 
had been accepted. 

I maintained relations, by letter, with my leading po- 
litical associates in about twenty States. I was espe- 
cially desirous of doing everything possible in the silver 
crisis, which was always in the President's mind. As 
an effect, I was able to treat the question in the English 
papers and thus to contribute something to foreign senti- 
ment about the changing conditions. T heard directly 
from the President, oftener than there was any reason 
to expect, and indirectly through five or six members of 
his Cabinet. 



Ill 

For a wonder — when the explosive character of some of 
the elements in our population is considered — no sort 
of debatable question concerning our diplomatic rela- 
tions with England arose until the administration had 
run more than half its course. Thomas F. Bayard, our 
first Ambassador, had, within a year of his arrival at 
his post, made himself better liked, perhaps, than any 
other foreigner that England has welcomed in her 



IQO RECOLLECTIONS OF 

later history. Even the Prince of Wales, now King, 
always well liked, was never more cordially popular 
among any class of his future subjects than was the 
American Ambassador. His ability and grace fitted so 
well into the English character that no public occasion 
was complete without his presence and an address from 
him. Everywhere he went, it was hands across the sea ; 
the brotherhood of a common origin, ancestry, and tradi- 
tions ; and likeness in language, literature, arts, and life 
—until the air was full of peace and good will. 

That trouble was brewing was well illustrated by the 
following letter written to me by Mr. Bayard : 

83, Eaton Square, S. W., 

May 25, 1895. 
Dear Mr. Parker: 

I had seen, but not so much in extenso, the outburst of jeal- 
ous and hostile suspicions of Great Britain in which our friend 

has just indulged in his excited vaticinations. I must 

oppose the best opinion I can form, after some years of 
close and careful consideration — during which I have been 
largely charged with the relations of our own country towards 
the outer world — and I can discern no just cause of dissension 
between the United States and Great Britain, and no intent or 
purpose of the latter inimical to the happiness, honor, and 
prosperity of our own. 

There is no territorial possession of Great Britain in the 
Western Hemisphere which is not anterior in date to the for- 
mation of the United States. Halifax, Bermuda, and San 
Lucia were all earlier, and so of the Spanish Main, in which 
the three Guianas are included. The increasing and acceler- 
ated armaments of Europe compel Great Britain to a fearful 
expenditure upon her navy, and her coaling station at San 
Lucia is one of the very few defensible sites in the West India 
Islands. But there is no question now open between the 
United States and Great Britain that needs any but frank, 
amicable, and just treatment. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 191 

I deprecate these appeals to excitement and unfounded re- 
sentments, and I am at a loss to account for them in a quarter 
I had supposed was wholly friendly to Mr. Cleveland's admin- 
istration. We have serious problems enoui^h within our bor- 
ders to spare us the necessity of manufacturing^ others without. 
Seldom in the world's history has one man been more plainly 
the instrumentality of great service to his country than Mr. 
Cleveland. It is difficult to measure the dangers which his 
sagacious and steadfast courage has averted. 

Sincerely yours. 

T. F. Bayard. 
Hon. Geo. F. Parker, 

United States Consul, 

Birmingham. 



All at once, and without warning, the storm broke. 
In the middle of December, 1895, the President sent 
to Congress his message about the boundary lines, long 
in question, between Venezuela and British Guiana, and 
announced, in terms neither mild nor inside the language 
usual to diplomacy, that, without further delay, the 
whole dispute must be submitted to arbitration. 

The sentiment— so friendly as to have in it some of 
the qualities of gush— suddenly changed, and an Ameri- 
can in England, from the Ambassador down to the hum- 
blest citizen, found himself in an atmosphere highly 
charged with suspicion, and, in many cases, with enmity. 
The press broke forth in denunciation, talk was heard 
of the necessity for the mobilization of the army and 
other war preparations, while diplomatic relations were 
as good as suspended until the passing storm of obloquy 
and misunderstanding was over. It was soon clear 
that, even in an official position, quiet and retirement 
were the best palliatives to an excitement which could 
not long maintain itself. Within a month, came the 



192 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

telegram of the Emperor William of Germany to Presi- 
dent Kruger of the Transvaal Republic, and the worst, 
so far as the United States were concerned, was over, 
although a good deal of strong feeling still remained. 



IV 

There was in Birmingham an organization known as 
the Dramatic and Literary Club, and one of its princi- 
pal functions was to celebrate each year the birthday 
of Shakespeare. Of this body I had been elected presi- 
dent for the year and had resolved, if possible, to make 
the annual dinner a conspicuous feature. In November, 
I had invited Mr. Bayard- as the principal guest of the 
club, and also to undertake a pilgrimage to Stratford- 
upon-Avon, which lay within my consular district. In 
December, the Ambassador was seriously doubtful 
whether or not the excitement would be sufficiently 
allayed by the arrival of Shakespeare week in April to 
justify him in attending as he had agreed to do. This is 
attested by the following letter : 

Embassy of the United States, 
London, December 31, 1895. 
Dear Mr. Parker: 

I was out of town when your letter of November 27 arrived. 
Very soon thereafter a condition of affairs came on which 
rendered it difficult for me to give you the direct and positive 
reply to which you were entitled. April 20 was a long way 
off, and what might occur from day to day it was impossible 
to foretell. And as matters stand to-day I feel that all plans 
of enjoyment and pleasant hospitality may be upset and re- 
placed by very different occupations, therefore I accept your 
suggestion that no harm can come from postponing until the 



GROVER CLEVELAND 193 

February meeting of your club the formation of plans for my 
visit to you in April next. 

By the time February arrives the sky may have cleared and 
present clouds dispersed, and with more cheerful hearts we 
may meet and greet our British kindred. 

I will be most glad to come to Birmingham to view its beau- 
tiful and varied industries and look in the faces of its citizens, 
and this I fully expect to do. At the same time, you can com- 
prehend how much there is to make me feel anxious, for there 
is too much at stake even in the remote risk of a collision 
between the nations who are the main guardians under God of 
the world's civilization. Sincerely yours, 

T. F. Bayard. 
Geo. F. Parker, Esq., 

United States Consul, 

Birmingham. 

About this time, an informal conference of leading 
citizens of Birmingham was held during a large public 
reception given at the house of Joseph Chamberlain, 
M.P., well known as a friend of America, in which Sir 
Benjamin Stone, then, as now, M.P. for one of the local 
divisions of the city, proposed that, without formal or- 
ganization or advertisement of its purpose, the occasion 
should be made a demonstration of the essential and 
deeply seated friendship between the two countries. 

Henceforth, all efforts were bent to assure success to 
this idea, with the result that the annual dinner took on 
unusual proportions. For the first time, an American 
presided at a Shakespeare dinner; the Ambassador 
was at his best; prominent English literary men were 
among the speakers ; the Lord Mayor was supported by 
leading men gathered from all over the district ; and, to 
crown the proceeding, the toast of the President of the 
United States was given, in response to which I was able 
to read the following letter: 

13 



194 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Executive Mansion, Washington, 

March 30, 1896. 
My dear Mr. Parker: 

I have received your letter informing me that the Birming- 
ham Dramatic and Literary Club intend to celebrate the birth- 
day of Shakespeare on the 21st of April, and extending to me, 
on behalf of the club, an invitation to be present on that 
occasion. 

Everything that tends to keep alive the memory of Shake- 
speare, and preserves a proper appreciation of his work, chal- 
lenges my earnest interest and approval ; and though I cannot 
be with you on the occasion you contemplate, I am glad to 
know that our American people are to be prominently repre- 
sented in the celebration. 

There is much said and written, in these days, concerning 
the relations that should exist, bound close by the strongest 
ties, between English-speaking peoples, and concerning the 
high destiny that awaits them in concerted effort. I hope we 
shall never know a time when these ennobling sentiments will 
be less often expressed, or will, in the least, lose their potency 
and influence. 

Surely, if English speech supplies the token of united effort 
for the good of mankind and the impulse of an exalted mis- 
sion, we do well to fittingly honor the name and memory of 

William Shakespeare. ^^ 4. 1 

*^ Yours very truly, 

Grover Cleveland, 

Hon. George F. Parker, 

President, etc., etc. 



The newspaper publication and reception were gener- 
ous and high-minded; Punch joined the chorus with a 
page cartoon ; public sentiment responded, and it is safe 
to say that by eliciting the Shakespeare letter written by 
President Cleveland on March 30, 1896, something was 
done to lay the ghost of war and misunderstanding 
raised by the Venezuela message. 









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SIMILE OF A LETTER WRITTEN TO TllK 1-RESIUENT OF THE BIRMINGHAM DRAMATIC ANn LITERARY CLUB 



GROVER CLEVELAND 195 



With the exception of his action in meeting, with 
unerring foresight and promptness, the Debs riots 
in Chicago, nothing in all his public life gave Mr. 
Cleveland more satisfaction than the message and corre- 
spondence about the Venezuela boundary line. It was 
these that brought him into such close relations with, 
and gave him such a comprehensive knowledge of, 
Richard Olney, the first growing out of his duties as 
Attorney-General and the second from his administra- 
tion of the Secretaryship of State. 

When I returned home in December, 1896, a year after 
the A'^enezuela episode, the election had been held which 
marked the defeat, at least for the time, of free silver 
and all the other financial isms which had raged, almost 
unchecked, during the period of a whole generation. He 
was, naturally, thankful that this had come not only 
in his time, but as the result of his devotion and cour- 
age ; but the contest had been so long pending, and the 
relief to his mind was so great, that, as often happens 
to men in crises, he spoke little of it. He was, however, 
deeply concerned about the then closed dispute with 
England, although he refused thus to narrow it. He 
looked upon it, then as always, not as a foreign, but as 
the most distinct of home questions. It had reverber- 
ated seemingly like an earthquake: the natural result of 
forces long existing. They merely came to the surface 
in his term, and so he had had to meet and deal with 
them. 



196 RECOLLECTIONS OF 



VI 

It would be an insult to his memory to assert that Mr. 
Cleveland had anything in him of the Jingo : his whole 
career is an embodied refutation of a charge so idle as 
this ; but he was essentially American, and he saw that, 
while we had been talking Monroe Doctrine for more 
than three quarters of a century, the time had come to 
act it for at least one representation. He had not been a 
deep student of foreign opinion, but he did care a great 
deal for it, and was, not unnaturally, desirous of know- 
ing how his drastic message was viewed in England, 
after the excitement over it had died down. He saw 
clearly, even thus early, that he had forever settled the 
relations which the United States was to bear both to 
Europe and to South America. 

It always seemed to strike him with surprise when, in 
later years, I told him — apparently in jest, though really 
in earnest — that he was the father of the spirit of im- 
perialism which had grown up after the war with Spain. 
He himself had done so much to avert that foolish, un- 
necessary, and hurtful conflict, that he could scarcely 
conceive that what he saw was only the logic of his own 
acts. Whatever the motive, he did realize that the unity 
of the Western Hemisphere had been so assured that 
the diverse elements and peoples of which it was com- 
posed were certain, thenceforward, to act together with 
a unity more substantial than any ever known over like 
areas or among such large and varied populations. He 
had assured by a single edict, without the intervention of 
any legislative body, what, at various times in history, 
during the last thousand years, different governments 
and peoples in Europe had thought to achieve on the 
Continent. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 197 

It was the more interesting to me because, in a letter 
written to him from England early in 1893, after seeing 
for how little the United States then counted in Europe, 
the hope was expressed that I might live to see the time 
when we might command at least as much news space in 
foreign newspapers as was devoted to the affairs of 
Turkey or Switzerland. My modest wish had come true 
in less than three years, and it was due entirely to the 
far-seeing and courageous act of one man. 



VII 

It was also interesting to hear from Mr. Cleveland's 
own lips some account of the method by which this end 
had been reached. It is well known that, when the 
Venezuela crisis was brewing, he went down the coast on 
a hunting expedition. The despatch from Lord Salis- 
bury had been received after nearly six months of delay, 
the whole matter had been carefully gone over, the 
answer to it decided upon though not written, and the 
method of its presentation to the country and the world 
settled. 

The details were left to the Secretary of State, of 
whom the President said to me : 

I had gone away tired out and left the matter 
wholly in Mr. Olney's hands. I knew how careful 
and able he was, but I must confess that I was as- 
tonished, upon my return, to find how completely he 
had worked out the reply to Lord Salisbury's des- 
patch. I do not think that, in all my experience, I 
have ever had to deal with any official document, pre- 
pared by another, which so entirely satisfied my criti- 
cal requirements. It had covered every point in the 
controversy not only completely but temperately and 



198 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

in unquestioned good taste from a diplomatic point 
of view. It was vigorous, but it caught the national 
spirit perfectly. I have never been able adequately 
to express my pleasure and satisfaction over this 
assertion of our position, and the country has never 
shown that it fairly understood or recognized the 
debt it owes to Richard Olney. 



VIII 

From other quarters, that is, from personal friends in 
the Cabinet, I have gathered, in the intervening years, 
some of the particulars of the consideration of the 
despatch to Lord Pauncefote in July, 1895. Colonel 
Hilary A. Herbert, then Secretary of the Navy, tells me 
that this important document was prepared by Mr. 
Olney while he and the President were down on the 
coast of Massachusetts, receiving its final revision at 
Mr. Cleveland's summer residence at Buzzard's Bay. It 
was then sent to all the members of the Cabinet, some 
three or four of whom were still in Washington, for 
their suggestions. Some were made, but the secret of 
the despatch was so well kept that the outside world 
never had even the smallest hint of its existence until 
it was sent to Congress along with the accompanying 
message of December 17, 1895. 

The course of the message itself was entirely differ- 
ent. The President had gone off on a hunting excur- 
sion, for rest from exacting labors, but mainly in order 
to find time to think quietly of the matter under con- 
sideration. Upon his return he found everything so well 
prepared that there remained only his part of the work 
to do, namely, the preparation of the message itself. It 




KICHAKD ( il.M \ 

. Attorney-General during; Cleveland's First Adii 

and Secretarj' of State in his Second Cabinet 



GROVER CLEVELAND 199 

was to be a brief document, but he so realized its impor- 
tance, as he told me, that he wrote and rewrote it with 
the greatest care. It may even have been true, as an 
army officer who accompanied him on the hunting trip 
says, that the first rough draft was written by Mr. 
Cleveland with his knee as a table, upon a block of 
paper which he took from his pocket, while on his hunt- 
ing trip. 

When finished, it was approved by the Secretary of 
State, but was not submitted to the Cabinet as a body, 
nor was knowledge of it extended beyond the narrowest 
limits. This secrecy did not arise from any desire to 
make the matter a mystery, but it was of such transcen- 
dent importance, from a public and business point of 
view, that the President, with even more than his usual 
caution, declined to take any chances of publicity. 

Just before its transmission— and after the final set- 
tlement of its form with the official most interested — 
the President began to read it to a member close to 
him in personal confidence as well as in direct interest. 
This was going forward previous to a regular Cabinet 
meeting, when a second member unexpectedly made his 
appearance at the door. Thereupon the reading was 
halted, the manuscript was hurriedly thrust into a 
drawer, only commonplace topics were discussed, after 
which the routine matters incident to the meeting were 
disposed of. These concluded, the message was again 
taken up, and, without further change or delay, it went 
to Congress, to produce that electrical eifect, both upon 
the country and the world, so well known as to require 
neither emphasis nor description. 

When the reading was completed, the President 
turned to his listener and asked: "Now, what do you 
think of it?" and getting the reply, "It seems to me that, 



200 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

towards the end, it is just a little bit tart," he said 
quickly, shaking his head as he always did when he 
wanted to put peculiar emphasis upon anything, "That 
is just what I intended." 



IX 

The original Secretary of the Interior in the second 
administration, Hoke Smith, in a letter to me under 
date of April 3, 1909, has confirmed the impression of 
Mr. Cleveland's opinion which was made upon his 
friends both at the time and during the remainder of his 
life, as to the motive guiding him in his action. He says : 

My recollection of the circumstances connected with Mr. 
Cleveland's celebrated Venezuelan message is very distinct. 
He sent it to Congress because he believed that it was the surest 
way to prevent serious trouble between Great Britain and the 
United States. Mr. Cleveland earnestly desired peace between 
all nations, and believed strongly in the adjustment of inter- 
national disputes by arbitration. 

The negotiations between Great Britain and the United 
States with reference to Venezuela had continued for quite a 
length of time without bringing satisfactory results, and Mr. 
Cleveland felt sure that a violation of the Monroe Doctrine 
would precipitate war between the two countries. He believed 
that it was necessary to present, upon this subject, such an 
unmistakable declaration by the United States that Great Brit- 
ain would realize the danger of war if the Monroe Doctrine 
was disregarded. He desired most sincerely to preserve 
friendly relations between our country and Great Britain, as 
he believed in the cooperation of all the civilized races, and 
especially of the English-speaking races, in behalf of peace and 
humanity. 

Nothing was further from his purpose than to bring about 
a collision between Great Britain and the United States. I 
heard him refer to this message, shortly after he sent it to 



GROVER CLEVELAND 201 

Congress, as his "peace message," and as "the only way, in his 
judgment, to prevent a probable collision between the two 
nations." I have no doubt that he sent the message to Con- 
gress believing that with it the risk of trouble was far less 
than if diplomatic negotiations continued in the ordinary way. 



CHAPTER XIII 

LATER CAMPAIGNS — BRYAN AND BRYANISM 



UPON my return in 1904, after eleven years' 
absence in England, it was to renew associa- 
tion, in an unexpected way, with Mr. Cleveland. 
Upon each of the six intervening home visits between 
1896 and the opening of the Presidential campaign, I 
had maintained my relations and always found him ab- 
sorbed in thought and study of the conditions then sur- 
rounding our political life. 

It was only natural that he should be thus troubled 
over the demoralization of the party to which, through a 
long life, he had given his allegiance and from which 
he had received high honors. Considerate of changes 
in most of the departments of our national life, it was 
difficult for him to use philosophy upon this, the one 
nearest his heart. When he saw the party lose its regu- 
lar or occasional footholds in one State after another, 
and then in the country, without compensating gain, he 
was solicitous lest, by omission or commission, he might 
have been responsible for the lack of cohesion. 



II 

But when he looked about him anew, he was consoled 
by the certainty that this serious condition was the 



GROVER CLEVELAND 203 

natural and inevitable punishment meted out to those 
abandonments of principle which, to his mind, were 
nothing less than a breaking of moral laws. He foresaw 
that this demoralization of one great party covered a 
state of the public mind, and that the whole of society 
could not long escape infection. He always insisted that 
it was fatal to permit special classes to exercise govern- 
mental powers for their own enrichment. It was sure to 
generate feelings of class hatred in those who recog- 
nized the existence of conditions inimical to their own 
interests. Out of this would grow two types of politi- 
cians, both harmful: demagogues and opportunists— 
and with him these were practically synonymous— who 
would play upon the interests and prejudices of the ig- 
norant or the confiding, and thus produce a crusade out 
of which would come infinite harm to morals as well as 
to industry. 

With this ingrained feeling, and having time to think, 
he was deeply interested in the Presidential campaign of 
1904. He wanted to do all within his power to promote 
a return to party sanity in management as well as in 
principles and candidates. He naturally refused to 
take any open part in favor of a particular man, but 
never concealed his belief that Judge George Gray was 
the logical candidate owing to his many qualities and 
especially to the fact that he was widely known by rea- 
son of having kept himself in close touch with events 
during the years immediately preceding the campaign. 



Ill 

Suggestions had been made from time to time, many 
months before the opening of the campaign, that Mr. 



204 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Cleveland himself might again accept a nomination. 
His friends, of course, knew that this was impossible, 
and yet he did not feel called upon to rush into print 
every time such a rumor was started. To them he was 
as frank and communicative as ever. Writing to one of 
the most intimate of them, Kope Elias of North Caro- 
lina, he said: 



Princeton, January 12, 1903. 
Kope Elias, Esq. 
My dear Sir: 

Your exceedingly friendly letter came duly to hand. I 
want you to understand how fully I appreciate your devotion 
to me, and the readiness you have always shown in champion- 
ing my interest. 

I do not feel as you do, on the subject discussed in your let- 
ter ; and you must not think it ungracious for me to tell you so. 
I consider my political life as ended. While I do not feel 
obliged to tell my thoughts to all who seek to know them, it is 
only fair and just for me to say, to so good a friend as you, 
that in present circumstances the idea of another candidacy 
seems to me to be absolutely out of the question, impossible for 
every reason, a sufficiently controlling one being the fact that 
I cannot conceive of a situation which would induce me to 
accept another nomination. 

One of the most ardent hopes of my life is to see our grand 
party regain the confidence of the people, and again win vic- 
tories ; but my place must hereafter be in the ranks. 

This letter is for your personal information, to the end that 
your friendship for me may not lead you into a position of 
embarrassment. 

Yours very sincerely, 

Grover Cleveland. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 205 



IV 

By the advice of Colonel Lament, who, owing to his 
railroad affiliations, desired to keep himself in the back- 
ground, I visited Princeton a few days after landing and 
went over the situation pretty fully with Mr. Cleveland. 
Some tentative suggestions were discussed, in accordance 
with which he should put out a statement of his views, 
and I offered to have it distributed to the press. When I 
reported this to some of my friends, they were desirous 
that he should be induced to give his advice, publicly, 
especially concerning the importance of a sound plat- 
form, in which they knew him to be profoundly inter- 
ested. The wishes of these friends were communicated 
to him, and I received the following reply : 

Princeton, April 22, 1904. 
My dear Mr. Parker: 

I did not remember that anything was said when you were 
here looking, in a definite way, toward my making a statement 
in the shape of an interview touching the political situation. I 
certainly do not want to do so at present. I am satisfied that 
in every view my silence is best in present circumstances. 

If a time should come when I can convince myself that any 
good purpose would be subserved by a renewed publication of 
my opinions or sentiments, I certainly would be glad to have 
your assistance and advice. 

The situation would not be improved by anything from me 
now. I have a great disinclination to appearing too frequently 
in the newspapers in the role of "guide, philosopher, and 
friend." 

Yours very sincerely, 

Grover Clevel.\nd. 
George F. Parker, Esq., 

New York. 



2o6 RECOLLECTIONS OF 



Somewhat later, I undertook to sound public sentiment 
further in respect to the declaration of principles to be 
made by the St. Louis Convention. There was a general 
fear that the managers of the movement for the nomi- 
nation of Judge Parker, in their eagerness to promote 
the interests of their candidate, might overlook the es- 
sentials in the making of the platform. So I kept my- 
self in pretty close relations with Mr. Cleveland, in the 
hope that he might declare himself upon this question. He 
was distinctly friendly to Judge Parker, but he was not 
entirely satisfied with some of the forces behind his can- 
didacy, and now, as ever, felt that Judge Gray ought to 
be chosen. 

In the meantime, there grew up, especially in Georgia 
and other Southern States, a demand that Mr. Cleveland 
himself should be nominated, and I was the medium 
of communicating to him knowledge of this inchoate 
movement. I was well aware that he would not even 
consider the suggestion, which, by this time, had ob- 
tained some publicity. He knew that I would attend the 
convention and could reach the Southern men in ques- 
tion, so that I carried with me the following letter, with 
directions to show it to a few gentlemen if necessary: 

Princeton, June 26, 1904. 
My dear Mr. Parker: 

I leave here for the summer on Tuesday a little after noon ; 
and I am in a confused stir making preparation. Your letter 
came yesterday. 

I have not been able to make out precisely the object of your 
efforts or the purpose of those acting with you. My idea, 
however, has been that something of a movement was on foot 



GROVER CLEVELAND 207 

to bring about another nomination than Parker's— though I 
have not supposed that "another nomination" was related to 
my candidacy. 

I cannot beheve now that in the face of all T have written 
and said, and in view of conditions as palpable to every friend 
I have in the world as they are to me, there can be an intention 
in any quarter to attempt, by any means or in any contingency, 
to compass my nomination : and yet within a day or two I have 
read and heard some disquieting things. 

I want to do what I can to avoid a charge of permitting 
misapprehension of my position ; and so I say to you as plainly 
as I can that all thought of my candidacy must be abandoned 
as absolutely and inexorably impossible. 

Yours sincerely, 

Grover Cleveland. 
George F. Parker, Esq., 

Astor House, 

New York. 



VI 

After the nomination of Judge Parker had been made 
and a meaningless platform had been supplemented by 
the Gold Telegram— an act of courage equaled by few 
in our political history— Mr. Cleveland's hopes were 
raised anew. Neither he nor the candidate himself, or 
any other man with a knowledge of conditions, dared to 
hope for success, much less to expect it: but he especially 
thought that it might be possible to bring the party back 
to its old principles and traditions. 

As the resulting campaign ran its course, he was dis- 
couraged by the compromises in management offered to 
what he always termed the "wreckers" of the party, but 
he was sincerely attached to the candidate and desirous 
of doing whatever he could to promote his interests and 



2o8 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

the ideas he represented. He consented to make two 
speeches, and so, recurring to an old habit, I was asked 
to go to Princeton to listen, as of old, to the reading of 
the drafts, taking back with me the copy for distri- 
bution to the press. All his old interest had been revived. 
He showed himself far more solicitous for the success of 
another than he had ever been for himself, and his dis- 
appointment over the crushing defeat was far keener 
than that of the candidate. 

I do not believe that, from this time forth, he thought 
the resuscitation of the party and its return to its old- 
time principles were among the probabilities of the 
immediate future. In the hands of demagogues and 
self-seekers, as he called some of the potent leaders, he 
feared that it would become a sort of political Cave of 
Adullam to which would resort "every one that was in 
distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one 
that was discontented." As each principle or policy 
for which it had stood was lost sight of, he felt that 
the shadow would gradually become more vital than the 
substance, and the machine would simply conceal weak- 
ness, not denote strength. 



VII 

Mr. Cleveland watched with an interest that never 
waned the rise of the party known as Populist. From 
its inception he had recognized that its demands were a 
formulated expression of those vague and impracticable 
notions which, like driftwood, had been floating upon 
the surface of the political deep from the beginnings of 
our government. He resented the fusions made with it 
in some of the Western States, always insisting that 
they were both perilous to the Democratic party's future 



GROVER CLEVELAND 209 

and unnecessary even for its temporary success — con- 
tentions well established by the Presidential election of 
1892. 

He was convinced that this movement would never 
become dangerous until it attracted to it some leader 
with the qualities which should at once enable him to 
present with much oratorical force the questions in- 
volved in such an agitation and bring to its support the 
wavering members of some existing party. He believed 
that William Jennings Bryan was such an apostle and 
that he would attempt to use the machinery of the Demo- 
cratic party for promoting his purposes. He said many 
times over: ''Bryan's mind, training, and imagination 
all combine to make of him a Populist, pure and simple. 
He has not even the remotest notion of the principles of 
Democracy." 

VIIT 

Because of his settled, unwavering feeling about the 
later lack of party leadership and absence of cohesion, 
this phase of Mr. Cleveland's political career demands 
adequate treatment. He was uncompromising in his 
opposition to Bryan and the thing known as Bryanism, 
because he believed them to be fatal to Democratic 
principles. 

No man could question his devotion to the party of his 
choice. In our whole history it is difficult to find another 
who had a stronger attachment to its principles and 
leaders, or one more consistently opposed to its rival and 
all that it stood for, than Grover Cleveland. None real- 
ized better than he the difficulties and trials through 
which it had passed during and after the Civil War and 
until his own election. 

He said to me over and over again: 

14 



2IO RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Of all the wonders that I have seen during my 
life, none has quite so impressed me as the reserve 
power of the Democratic party, which seems to have 
the elements of earthly immortality. It stood the 
shocks of civil war, during which it almost disap- 
peared as a political entity in many of the States of 
the North and from all those in revolt. In spite of 
the attempt to discredit its principles, organization, 
and leaders, it sent into the Union army more men 
than its rival and furnished nearly all the generals 
who either organized armies or won victories. It 
has passed through the heresies of greenbackism 
and free coinage ; but one was opposed and killed by 
Democrats in the Senate, and the other by a Demo- 
cratic President. It has lacked the discipline natural 
to its rival ; and yet, in spite of this fact, it has since 
stuck to its principles with such persistence that it 
has generally held more than a majority of the 
States, has made a courageous fight in all Presiden- 
tial contests, and has won in two of them. 

This remark, in substance, was many times repeated 
in the earlier years of my acquaintance, and emphasized 
after his retirement from the Presidency, and was al- 
ways coupled with the prediction that a party which had 
withstood such shocks as these would bury Populism so 
deep that it would be nothing more than an unfragrant 
political memory. Even in the darkest days, when his 
attached friends were doubtful of the future of his 
party, he adhered to this opinion. There were times 
when he would have blue or despondent spells ; but these 
would soon pass away, and his confidence in the vitality 
of settled principles, and, especially, his belief in the 
good sense of the American people, would quickly re- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 211 

assert themselves, and his forebodings would disappear. 
He insisted that it might take time but that no other re- 
sult was possible. Not to believe this would have de- 
stroyed his faith in the integrity and permanence of 
American ideas and institutions whose existence, in his 
opinion, was only possible so long as our people should 
divide themselves on fixed principles into two parties 
fairly balanced as to numbers. 



IX 

One of Mr. Cleveland's intimate friends tells me that 
he went to Washington in 1893, at the beginning of the 
extra session called to repeal the silver-purchase clause 
of the Sherman Act. He soon became convinced that 
opposition inside his own party — little short of treachery 
— was then wide-spread and already beyond control. 
It was difficult to convince Mr. Cleveland that such a 
thing was possible. As events slowly developed during 
the next two years, my friend again went to Washing- 
ton and still found that the President, in spite of the 
repeal of the Silver Law, was skeptical about the fear 
that the Democratic party could be shifted from its 
moorings as a sound-money organization. He writes : 

Mr. Cleveland was slow to believe that the party could take 
such a course. It seemed to him so abhorrent as to be impos- 
sible. When the blow fell, he met it with his usual splendid 
courage. His attitude towards Bryan, Senator Vest, and the 
other misleaders, I can only describe as an exhibition of sor- 
row, pity, and Christian patience. He looked upon them as 
one looks upon madmen who endanger themselves while in- 
juring others. Through it all, he showed the same grim de- 
termination to hold fast to principle and to look to time for 
that vindication which came in such ample measure before he 



212 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

passed away. In January, 1896, when I told him that nothing 
could keep the party from going wrong, he repHed : "Then it 
will be our duty to stand by our guns and let the party go, if 
it insists upon abandoning principle for expediency at the risk 
of the country's ruin." 



Mr. Cleveland's attitude of doubt, no less than his 
unwavering confidence in the outcome, was confirmed by 
the following letter written to a New York friend who, 
through a newspaper, had reminded the public of the 
President's 'difficulties and its duty towards him: 

Executive Mansion, Washington, 

April 16, 1894. 
My dear Mr. Wheeler: 

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your letter in 
the Nezv York Times of to-day. 

It is very refreshing, in the midst of much misconception 
and prejudice and ignorance and injustice, to know that there 
are some who are inclined to be just and fair. 

There never was a man in this high office so surrounded 
with difficulties and so perplexed, and so treacherously treated, 
and so abandoned by those whose aid he deserves, as the pres- 
ent incumbent. 

But there is a God, and the patriotism of the American peo- 
ple is not dead ; nor is all truth and virtue and sincerity gone 
from the Democratic party. The delay may be discouraging 
and our faith may be sorely tried, but in the end we shall see 
the light. 

Yours very sincerely, 

Grover Cleveland. 
Everett P. Wheeler, Esq., 

New York City. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 213 



XI 

Absence from the country during most of the second 
administration compelled me to keep in touch with the 
course of events by correspondence. Upon my arrival 
in Washington three weeks after the election, I found 
an invitation to luncheon at the White House on the 
following day. When Mr. Cleveland saw me, after 
nearly four years of separation, his greeting was: 
"Well, you did not forget me even if you were in Eng- 
land. I read your letters in behalf of the Palmer and 
Buckner ticket, and they interested me deeply. I knew 
where you would stand as a matter of principle, but 
you surprised me by the vigorous blows you struck." 

It was only natural that, in the next two hours, he 
should tell me the story of the political part of the 
administration. This was interesting, but most of it is 
now a part of our national history, with which I need 
not concern myself. What most engaged my attention 
was to hear from him something about the meteoric fig- 
ure of Bryan, the self-nominated candidate who had, 
somehow, taken possession of a great party. He was 
wholly new and had for me the interest inherent in the 
unknown. 

I soon found that Mr. Cleveland knew little more 
about him personally than I did. When the second term 
began he found Bryan in Washington as a member of 
Congress from Nebraska, elected in 1890 as a Democrnt 
and reelected in 1892. In his first session he made one 
tariff speech which evinced decided oratorical powers, 
though hardly up to the standard of knowledge set in 
the discussion of the Mills Bill. In spite of this defect, 
the President was pleased to find support for Demo- 



214 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

cratic principles in a quarter from which it had been 
least expected. But his satisfaction was short-lived. 
It was clear, before long, that, for Mr. Bryan, the tariff 
was little more than a declamatory expedient. As to 
what he really and honestly believed in, the President 
said: "The idea that appealed to his imagination was 
free silver : the one that I had fought since my entrance 
into national politics." 
He continued : 

In time it was made plain that some of the ex- 
treme silver advocates in the Senate or House had 
been busying themselves, even more than the aver- 
age Congressman, in an effort to obtain offices for 
their friends. As you know, I refused, at the open- 
ing of the administration, to discriminate in appoint- 
ments between the advocates and the opponents of 
free silver. It was some time before we discovered 
that, in a large number of the Congressional districts 
of the middle and further West, some of the most 
active silver men were getting into post-offices and 
other places of importance. It took still longer to 
see that they were obtaining control, here and there, 
of the party machinery, and that, less considerate 
than I had been, they were inclined to push aside 
some of the faithful men who supported the adminis- 
tration in its coinage policy. It became evident, 
later, that a plan had been formed to use the patron- 
age to promote their own ideas, so that the adminis- 
tration, in addition to business depression, the Chi- 
cago strike, and an unusual popular unrest, found 
some of its appointees turned against itself. Among 
these active men, none was more industrious in seek- 
ing places for his followers than Mr. Bryan. I dis- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 215 

covered, in due time, that a goodly proportion of 
these were PopuHsts'in reahty if not in name. 



XII 



Prior to the campaign of 1904, when I saw much of 
Mr. Cleveland, he seldom spoke of Mr. Bryan. The 
matter never presented itself to him as a personal one. 
He seemed to think that the party would be able so to 
reunite its forces and that all candidates and elements 
would work together. He deprecated some of the con- 
cessions made to the distinctive Bryan elements in the 
campaign management, characterizing them as weak- 
ening, and could never convince himself that Mr. Bryan 
was sincere in his avowal of support of Judge Parker, 
afterwards pointing to the returns as proof that his fears 
and predictions had been fully justified. 

While consistently refusing to come to the front as 
a centre around which organization could proceed, he 
urged the utmost vigilance in holding what had been 
gained by the campaign of 1904. He was constantly 
consulted by those who believed that some progress had 
been made, and always advised fully and freely. As a 
new Presidential campaign came into view, he insisted 
that if ]\Ir. Bryan should be again nominated it would 
be wholly due to neglect of the opportunity that pre- 
sented itself. He felt sure that the party did not want 
him, that he could only be chosen by default, and that 
there was no chance of his election. 

In June, 1907, on my own motion, I made a hurried 
political trip through some of the Western States and 
reported to Mr. Cleveland the result of my inquiries. 
They were not encouraging, because it was impossible 



2i6 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

to find that anybody had more than a timid, formal in- 
terest in the result. It appeared to be the general opin- 
ion that Bryan was inevitable, not because the party 
wanted him, but for the less creditable reason that it 
hoped to be finally rid of him by assuring his over- 
whelming defeat for the third time. Mr. Cleveland 
could not understand the apathy and indifiference so 
manifested, in the face of the prospect of success with a 
solid and acceptable candidate. He had no personal fa- 
vorite, but firmly refused to believe that party fatuity 
would go to the length of nominating Bryan for the 
third time. 

In September, 1907, for his information, I sent him 
a letter I had received from one of his old friends. It 
contained the following reference to politics: 

I think Mr. Bryan will be a candidate again, and of course 
I intend to fight him. I see no indications that the Democratic 
party as you and I knew it is ever to be restored. Under nor- 
mal conditions a party should arise from the masses of the 
people to defend the necessary doctrine of strict construction 
of the Constitution and the use by the coordinate branches of 
the Federal Government of the powers delegated to them, and 
no others. But conditions are not as they were when we were 
young. The press of the country no longer discusses consti- 
tutional questions ; the spirit of socialism in its many forms is 
abroad amongst the masses of the people, and any movement 
arising from them is more likely to carry the doctrines of Karl 
Marx than those of Jefferson. 



The next day it was returned with the following note : 

Princeton, September 2y, 1907. 
My dear Parker: 

I am very much obliged to you for the opportunity to read 
the inclosed. I do not agree with our friend that another dish 



GROVER CLEVELAND 217 

of Bryan will be forced upon our party; but his letter is, after 
all, like a breath of fresh air in a bad atmosphere. 

Yours truly, 

Grover Cleveland. 
George F. Parker, Esq. 

New York. 



XIII 

As the time approached for the National Convention of 
1908, Mr. Cleveland showed the same keen interest in 
the outcome. His confidence in the good sense and recu- 
perative power of his party was so strong that he never 
lost hope. He constantly returned to the question, thus 
showing that it was never out of mind. He would 
not listen to suggestions that perhaps it would be 
just as well to let the nomination go to Mr. Bryan by 
default. He did not believe this to be either honest, or 
good politics. He was never heard to discuss the possi- 
bility of voting for any Republican candidate. He 
used to say: "I early formed the habit of voting the 
Democratic ticket and so would not know, how to sup- 
port any other." He took little interest in the personal 
side of the Republican National Convention except for 
its influence upon his own party, and never, even by in- 
direction, expressed his intention of favoring or sup- 
porting any Republican for President. 

All through the last winter of his life, he kept on, in 
a quiet way, trying to interest the best men in his party 
in an efifort to stem the Bryan tide. I had a long talk 
with him in his Madison Avenue offices on March 5, in 
which it was. difficult to get him to speak of any other 
question. His attitude was unequivocal, and he empha- 
sized, with his usual energy, the folly of the party 



2i8 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

leaders, especially in the South. He insisted that only 
courage and systematic effort were necessary to bring 
about a result which would insure party harmony. He 
had ample advices through that corps of correspondents 
which, for nearly twenty years, had kept him in close 
touch with real public sentiment. He was convinced 
that the party was tired of going to defeat, year after 
year, especially when it had only to pull itself together 
to achieve notable victories. 



XIV 

My last intervrew with Mr. Cleveland was held on the 
1 2th of March, 1908, in his up-town offices. I never saw 
him in a more cheerful mood, nor fuller of mental vigor. 
I had called upon some business errand — expecting to 
remain only a few minutes— but this done, he was hun- 
gry for one of his old-time long talks. More and more 
the subject of current politics was on his mind, and 
during the two hours that he kept me, he would speak 
of little else. In this last conversation there was a sug- 
gestion of unusual earnestness, especially in deprecation 
of the weakness of the party and its leaders in not tak- 
ing steps to uphold its settled principles. He said : 

This year gives us our chance. The Republicans 
are torn to pieces by faction, while the country seems 
ready to return to us if we shall only be true to our- 
selves. In spite of these favoring influences, we 
shall throw away our chances for the present, and 
put them in peril for the future, if Bryan is nomi- 
nated. The experience of the past twelve years has 
demonstrated this. In two of the Presidential elec- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 219 

tions held during this period not less than a million 
solid, old-fashioned Democrats have felt that they 
could not support the national ticket and have 
either abstained from voting or have opposed the 
candidate. 

This policy has driven our own people away and 
has repelled the young men upon whom, throughout 
all the history of our party, we have depended for 
support and success. Within this period, we have 
lost control of every State in the North ; we have, I 
fear, made some of the Southern States Republican ; 
we have practically lost our Northern representation 
in the United States Senate; and we no longer have 
effective recruiting stations for public life in State 
legislatures and other popular bodies. 

What is still more vital to us as a party is 
that we are on the verge, it seems to me, of losing 
our distinctive issue of tariff reform for which, dur- 
ing all the chances and changes of the past, we have 
stood. As I see it, if we fail this year the Republi- 
cans will take up the question in such a way that we 
cannot hope to recover our ownership of it. That 
they will tinker with it, is certain. They have played 
with the currency problem, but, in doing so, have de- 
prived us of power to appeal to the country on the 
large lines inherent in the principles for which our 
party has always stood. 

It would be easy to reconstruct the party now; it 
may be possible to do it in any case; but, if we shall 
continue much longer to go to predestined defeat, it 
will require a popular interest and preponderance 
little less than revolutionary in its character so to 
bring the party back to principle that it can com- 
mand the support of the country. 



220 RECOLLECTIONS OF 



XV 



During the whole of his poHtical Hfe, one of Mr. Cleve- 
land's trusted friends was Mr. E. Prentiss Bailev, editor 
of the Utica Observer, who has had the unusual good 
fortune to be thrown into close political fellowship and 
personal intimacy with three Democratic leaders : Hora- 
tio Seymour, Samuel J. Tilden, and Grover Cleveland. 
He has earned the right to congratulate himself that 
the wisdom and pure character of the first were his 
study and guide for thirty years; that Tilden com- 
manded his enthusiastic and efficient support from the 
time of becoming a power in New York and during his 
later career as a national figure; and that, when Cleve- 
land came upon the stage, there were circumstances that 
brought him into close relations with the remaining 
member of this commanding triumvirate. 

Probably the last political letter written by the ex- 
President was addressed to Mr. Bailey, two days after 
the sentiments above reported were expressed to me. 
By his courtesy, I am permitted to present it herewith : 

Princeton, N. J., 
14 March, 1908. 
My dear Mr. Bailey: 

I have read with a great deal of satisfaction your last ex- 
ceedingly friendly letter. Regarding you as one of my oldest 
and best personal friends, as well as one of the stanch political 
comrades still remaining to wage warfare in the Democratic 
cause, your solicitude concerning my health and the kind ex- 
pressions contained in your letter are most gratifying. 

I often recall past political contests and those who were 
prominent as leaders in days past in winning Democratic vic- 
tories. I do not know but your thoughts are often led in the 
same direction, and if they are you must feel the same surprise 



GROVER CLEVELAND 221 

that I do in being able to recall so few who yet survive. It 
does not seem to me that the successors of these old leaders 
naturally give rise to great confidence or hope. Still I cannot 
rid myself of the idea that our party, which has withstood so 
many clashes with our political opponents, is not doomed at 
this time to sink to a condition of useless and lasting de- 
cadence. 

In my last letter to you I expressed myself as seeing some 
light ahead for Democracy. I cannot help feeling at this time 
that the light is still brighter. It does seem to me that move- 
ments have been set in motion which, though not at the present 
time of large dimensions, promise final relief from the burden 
which has so long weighed us down. I have lately come to the 
conclusion that our best hope rests upon the nomination of 
Johnson of Minnesota. The prospects to my mind appear as 
bright with him as our leader as with any other, and whether 
we meet with success or not, I believe with such a leader we 
shall take a long step in the way of returning to our old creed 
and the old policies and the old plans of organization which 
have heretofore led us to victory. 

I received a letter a few days ago from Judge Donahue of 
New York, an old war-horse of Democracy now eighty- four 
years old, but still active in the practice of Viis profession. He 
said to me that, though he was by a number of years older than 
I, he not only hoped but expected to live to see a Democratic 
President in the White House. I often think that, with my 
seventy-one years to be completed in four days now, such a 
hope and expectation on my part can hardly be reasonably 
entertained ; but I confess that I am somewhat ashamed of 
such pessimistic feeling when I read' the cheery and confident 
words contained in this old veteran's letter. I do not want 
you to suppose that a feeling of pessimism toward political 
affairs is habitual with me. On the contrary, such a condition 
of mind is quite infrequent and so temporary that it yields 
quickly to a better mood and a settled conviction that our party 
before many years will march from the darkness to the full 
light of glorious achievement. 

I, too, have very recently had a letter from our old friend 
Dr. Miller of Omaha. It is an astonishing thing that at his 



222 GROVER CLEVELAND 

age his vigor is so unimpaired, his mind so clear, and his readi- 
ness to do pohtical battle so keen. 

I frequently see General James's letters in the Observer 
and cannot help congratulating you on the fact that you have 
a personal friend so charming and one who is so willing to 
contribute in an exceedingly interesting and instructive way to 
the columns of your paper. I myself certainly feel very much 
favored that I have gained his good opinion. I wish there 
were a few more who, like him, could love their country in an 
unselfish and disinterested manner and were willing to do 
something to remind their fellow-countrymen of duty and 
opportunity. yours very sincerely, 

Grover Cleveland. 
E. Prentiss Bailey, Esq., 
Utica, New York, 



XVI 

Nothing in all his career gave Mr. Cleveland more 
sorrow than this sad condition of his party. Its prin- 
ciples lay so close to his heart, he believed so firmly in 
them, was so attached to its history, traditions, and lead- 
ership, and so impressed with tlie necessity of two great 
parties, that a failure to maintain its power seemed to 
him like the loss of some fundamental part of our insti- 
tutions. 

He did not question the sincerity of others and only 
asked that they should have, as well as profess, attach- 
ment to its established policies and thus keep it from 
going upon a wild-goose chase in the vain hope of catch- 
ing voters really hostile to its ideas and aims. He never 
forgot that he had won his honors through its support, 
and he requited them with an aflFection, a disinterested- 
ness, and a devotion seldom seen: but he could only 
show these efifectively by insisting that it should stand 
firmly by its principles. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE INSURANCE EPISODE 



NOTHING in his public career gave Mr. Cleve- 
land more genuine satisfaction than the relations 
which he bore, in his closing years, to life-in- 
surance. The invitation to undertake it came to him 
without seeking: as a surprise. He was not astonished 
at the revelations first made in the Hyde-Alexander 
quarrel and confirmed and increased by the Armstrong 
Committee. He looked upon them as natural and to be 
expected. He never exaggerated their extent and, 
naturally, had no part in the hysteria which seemed, all 
at once, to seize our people. He was little given to the 
*T told you so" order of prophecy or activity, as he con- 
sidered these developments the natural result of govern- 
ment favoritism. H he had presumed to analyze them 
in their first and last effect, he would have said that they 
were the outward sign of an inward condition produced 
by our system of tariff taxes. 

But, when the crisis came, there was only one thought 
in his mind : How shall we get over this exposure, with 
the least damage to morals and industry, and also use 
it as a warning for the future? He did not rush into 
speech or print, into denunciation or apology, but, when 

923 



224 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

the time and invitation came, was ready to apply himself 
to the devising of practical methods. He had never so 
much as thought of having any personal connection with 
the matter, in spite of the fact that, among the many 
ingenious suggestions, was one that he should take the 
presidency of some one of the three companies involved 
in the scandal. 



II 

It remained for Mr. Thomas Fortune Ryan to think out 
a practical plan for utilizing Mr. Cleveland's great in- 
fluence with the public and its confidence in his judg- 
ment and honesty, for stopping what threatened to be- 
come an overwhelming panic. Month after month had 
passed, each more prolific in sensation than the other, 
and, apparently, no man of position and leading had 
conceived the idea of doing something constructive. 
Mr. Ryan did this when he boldly bought outright the 
controlling stock of the Equitable Life Assurance So- 
ciety and, with still greater courage and audacity, at 
once dispossessed himself of both the stock and the con- 
trol by creating a trust with Grover Cleveland at its 
head. 

In our whole history, probably no private individual, 
without other responsibility than his own idea of what 
was right and necessary, has performed a business act 
which appealed more to the public imagination, or was 
so efifective in curing popular hysteria, as this one was. 
Its influence was not limited to the particular insurance 
society nominally interested, but was felt immediately 
in the remotest limits of the country and in every busi- 
ness and calling. 

Accident was to throw me again into intimate asso- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 225 

ciation with Mr. Cleveland— wholly without seeking or 
even knowledge on my part of such an intention. On 
the evening of June 9, 1905, when in attendance upon a 
public dinner, I was called by Mr. Ryan to the telephone. 
He read me his letter inviting Mr. Cleveland to accept 
the trust, and I was asked whether or not it would be 
possible for me to go to Princeton by the earliest train 
next morning. I requested Mr. Cleveland, both by tele- 
graph and telephone, not to see anybody or to read any- 
thing on insurance matters until I could see him, and 
spent the greater part of the night in making myself 
entirely familiar with this unexpected call. I reached 
Westland, Mr. Cleveland's residence, before ten o'clock 
the next morning. 

Ill 
Mr. Ryan's letter was as follows: 

38 Nassau Street, 

New York, June 9. 1905. 
My dear Mr. Cleveland: 

You may be aware that a bitter controversy exists regard- 
ing the management of the Equitable Life Assurance Society 
and that public confidence has been shaken in the safety of 
the fund under the control of a single block of stock left by 
the late Henry B. Hyde. This loss of confidence affects a 
great public trust of more than $400,000,000, representing 
the savings of over 600,000 policy-holders, and the present 
condition amounts to a public misfortune. 

In the hope of putting an end to this condition and in con- 
nection with a change of the executive management of the 
Society. I have, together with other policy-holders, purchased 
this block of stock and propose to put it into the hands of a 
board of trustees having no connection with Wall Street, 
with power to vote it for the election of directors — as to 

15 



226 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

twenty-eight of the fifty-two directors in accordance with the 
instructions of the poHcy-holders of the Society, and as to the 
remaining twenty-four directors in accordance with the un- 
controlled judgment of the trustees. This division of twenty- 
eight and twenty-four is in accordance with a plan of giving 
substantial control to policy-holders already approved by the 
Superintendent of Insurance. 

I beg you to act as one of this board with other gentlemen, 
who shall be of a character entirely satisfactory to you. I 
would not venture to ask this of you on any personal grounds; 
but to restore this great trust, affecting so many people of 
slender means, to soundness and public confidence would cer- 
tainly be a great public service, and this view emboldens me 
to make the request. The duties of the trust would be very 
light, as in the nature of things, when a satisfactory board is 
once constituted, there are few changes, and all the clerical 
and formal work would be done by the office force of the 
company. 

I have written similar letters to Justice Morgan J. O'Brien, 
Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division of our Supreme 
Court, and to Mr. George Westinghouse of Pittsburgh, two 
of the largest policy-holders in the Society. 

Very truly yours, 

Thomas F. Ryan. 
Hon. Grover Cleveland, 
Princeton, 

New Jersey. 



Bearing this letter, the matter in hand was at once 
taken up, its more obvious limitations and requirements 
discussed and disposed of, the general situation fully 
explained; after which we were ready to consider the 
larger features which, from my experience, I knew 
would be uppermost in Mr. Cleveland's mind. He was 
fully awake to the importance of the action proposed, but, 
as usual, doubted, first, whether or not he was the man to 
take up such an arduous work, and thus virtually with- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 227 

draw from his retirement ; and then whether, conceding 
this, he either ought or could afiford to undertake a task 
involving so much risk of reputation. He urged his un- 
familiarity with practical business, to which the ready 
and natural answer was that details were only slightly 
involved, the really important matter in hand being the 
assertion of broad general principles until such time as 
the public alarm could be allayed. 

In this way, the objections based upon expediency 
and experience were met and disposed of, as was readily 
apparent, to his satisfaction. There remained another 
and final one: by far the most serious. This was the 
unlucky precedent set by one of our ex-Presidents, who, 
long after the expiration of his Presidential service, had 
been drawn into a banking connection which proved 
fatal to fortune, involved his good name for a brief 
time, and had since been pointed out as one of the perils 
to be avoided by ex-Presidents. In urging this, I was 
able, from personal knowledge and by reason of per- 
sonal relations, to assure Mr, Cleveland that Mr. Ryan 
had purchased the Equitable stock out of hand, from his 
own ample resources, and that he sought to avert a 
great public peril and neither to make a profit nor to 
exert financial power. 

IV 

Convinced of the disinterestedness of all concerned, 
he consented to accept the trust, and authorized me to 
telephone his decision to New York. Upon my return 
to his room the question was raised as to the form which 
his acceptance should take. He thought nothing more 
was necessary than a brief, formal note to be carried 
back as an immediate reply to a business proposal. 



228 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Here, again, it was represented to him that this afforded 
him an opportunity to make an appeal to the country, 
in the form of a letter, which should exercise an influ- 
ence more extensive than anything else that could be 
said or done. He assented, and on the same day wrote 
as follows : 

Princeton, June lo, 1905. 
Thomas F. Ryan, Esq. 

Dear Sir: 

I have this morning received your letter asking me to act 
as one of the three trustees to hold the stock of the Equitable 
Life Assurance Society which has lately been acquired by 
you and certain associates, and to use the voting power of 
such stock in the selection of directors of said Society. 

After a little reflection I have determined I ought to accept 
this service. I assume this duty upon the express condition 
that, so far as the trustees are to be vested with discretion 
in the selection of directors, they are to be absolutely free and 
undisturbed in the exercise of their judgment, and that, so 
far as they are to act formally in voting for the directors 
conceded to policy-holders, a fair and undoubted expression 
of policy-holding choice will be forthcoming. 

The very general anxiety aroused by the recent unhappy 
dissensions in the management of the Equitable Society fur- 
nishes proof of the near relationship of our people to life- 
insurance. These dissensions have not only injured the fair 
fame of the company immediately affected, but have impaired 
popular faith and confidence in the security of life-insurance 
itself as a provision for those who in thousands of cases 
would be otherwise helpless against the afflictive visitations 
of fate. 

The character of this business is such that those who man- 
age and direct it are charged with a grave trust for those who, 
necessarily, must rely upon their fidelity. In those circum- 
stances they have no right to regard the places they hold as 
ornamental, but rather as positions of work and duty and 
watchfulness. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 229 

Above all things, they have no right to deal with the in- 
terests intrusted to them in such a way as to subserve or to 
become confused or complicated with their personal trans- 
actions or ventures. 

While the hope that I might aid in improving the plight 
of the Equitable Society has led me to accept the trusteeship 
you tender, I cannot rid myself of the belief that what has 
overtaken this company is liable to happen to other insurance 
companies and fiduciary organizations as long as lax ideas 
of responsibility in places of trust are tolerated by our people. 

The high pressure of speculation, the madness of inordi- 
nate business scheming, and the chances taken in new and 
uncertain enterprises, are constantly present temptations, too 
often successful, in leading managers and directors away 
from scrupulous loyalty and fidelity to the interests of others 
confided to their care. 

We can better afford to slacken our pace than to abandon 
our old, simple, American standards of honesty; and we shall 
be safer if we regain our old habit of looking at the appro- 
priation to personal uses of property and interests held in 
trust in the same light as other forms of stealing. 

Yours very truly, 

Grover Cleveland. 



The trustees met within a week and completed their or- 
ganization—the only occasion when Mr. Ryan ever 
attended — and, accepting the deed of trust, proceeded to 
the work in hand. Even thus early, the American ca- 
pacity for seeking places, either of emolument or honor, 
was freely demonstrated, as the records of the secre- 
tary contained, within less than two weeks, more than 
two hundred names of men who had been presented 
either by themselves or their friends as willing candi- 
dates for a directorship. These were distributed through 



230 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

every State and drawn from every trade and profession. 
Perhaps the larger proportion were either agents of 
the society or candidates pushed by agents. It was easy 
to eHminate the first division of this class by making a 
rule that under no circumstances would the name of an 
agent, either former, present, or prospective, be so much 
as considered. As to the latter, the confession must be 
made that some of the most acceptable names were pre- 
sented by active and enterprising agents, especially in 
the more remote cities. 

The trustees found many vacancies awaiting their 
attention, most of them created by the resignation of 
some of the leading business men of the country. Per- 
haps a great concern has never had upon its directorate 
so many efficient men of high standing as the Equitable 
when the scandals came. Among a few of the vacancies 
to be filled were those created by the resignations of 
Edward H. Harriman, James J. Hill, August Belmont, 
Henry C. Frick, A. J. Cassatt, and Jacob H. Schiif, 
while the spirit which had induced these men to retire 
made others apprehensive about accepting their places. 

Happily, some associations of policy-holders pre- 
sented a few excellent men who were chosen at the 
earliest meetings, but they also raised the insuperable 
difficulty, in other cases, of putting forward men whom 
Mr. Cleveland refused even so much as to consider. 
His well-known dogged firmness made it easier for the 
trustees to resist such pressure, backers being aware 
that when he had once made up his mind, nothing would 
move him. 

Even with all the volunteers, it became necessary to 
seek for men of a kind acceptable to the trustees ; so 
from rolls of policy-holders long lists of names were 
gathered for consideration, and these were supple- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 231 

mented by those personally known to the members— no 
outside advice being either sought or acceptable. It 
was here that Mr. Cleveland's large knowledge of the 
country became of great service. Although he had then 
been out of public life for eight years, it was scarcely 
possible to mention a man of prominence about whom 
he did not remember at least something, and from this 
recollection he generally could deduce the character of 
the man and his fitness for the important position in 
view. Speculators, members of stock exchanges, and 
promoters were soon placed in the same category with 
agents, so that the field from which choice could be 
made was constantly narrowing, while, owing to addi- 
tional resignations, the vacancies were increasing rather 
than diminishing. But in spite of the high standard set, 
the proportion of exclusions, and the resignations, the 
board was kept up to its legal strength and the require- 
ment met that a majority should be citizens of New 
York. 

VI 

In one of the earliest meetings the policy of the trustees 
was set forth in the following address to policy-holders 
written by Mr. Cleveland : 

It shall be onr effort to avail ourselves of all the knowledge 
and information within our reach, to secure for directors 
from among policy-holders such persons as are imbued with 
conservative views of management, and who will regard as 
distinctly violative of duty the use of the funds of the Society 
directly or indirectly in the promotion, underwriting, or syn- 
dicating of new and uncertain enterprises, or the investment 
of such funds in speculative stocks and securities. 

The published reports of those who have investigated the 
past management of the Society and the astounding revela- 



2Z2 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

tions they bring to light have impressed us with the grave 
responsibiHty resting upon us to prevent, so far as it is in our 
power, a repetition of a scandalous and tragic chapter in the 
history of a great life-insurance company. The lessons to 
be learned from the exposures of these reports are that the 
men who are more concerned in making money for them- 
selves than in discharging a sacred trust should not have con- 
trol of a life-insurance company, and that in the investment 
of life-insurance funds safety, rather than large profits, 
should be the rule. 

The same obligations that rest on the trustees of savings- 
banks rest on the directors of life-insurance companies — 
because in more than one sense a life-insurance company is 
a savings-bank. The same conservative management, the 
same economy in expenditure, and the same care as to invest- 
ments, are as necessary in the one case as the other. The his- 
tory of the savings-banks in the State of New York is most 
creditable ; and we believe this is due, not alone to the able, 
honest, and disinterested men who have managed them, but 
also to the laws which have limited the character of the 
securities in which they could invest. 

We feel like saying to you that, notwithstanding the afflic- 
tions of the Equitable Society, its resources, assets, and sur- 
plus are too great, and reforms in its management are too 
promising, to admit of doubt or misgiving on your part con- 
cerning the safety of your policy investments. . . . We again 
bespeak your sensible and independent aid, uninfluenced by 
invidious and suspicious influences; and, in return, we pledge 
ourselves that, so far as it is given us to see our way, the con- 
duct of our trust shall be actuated solely by a desire to secure 
and conserve your interests, and promote the safety and suc- 
cess of the great life-insurance organization of which you and 
your families are the promised beneficiaries. 



VII 

As was usual with Mr. Cleveland, he showed his thor- 
ough absorption in the duty that lay next to his hand. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 233 

He used the same care in picking out a director for the 
Equitable that he had formerly shown in filling his 
Cabinets, or choosing high officials of the Government, 
for whose every act he held himself responsible. He 
took nothing for granted, was considerate of his col- 
leagues but as critical of their judgment as of his own. 
There was no give and take among the trustees, no put- 
ting in men as a compliment to each other, no log- 
rolling. There were no compromises because there were 
no dififerences of opinion: from first to last every act 
was unanimous. The first insistence was that a man 
chosen should accept subject to the condition that he 
would then give close attention to his duties. 

Some idea may be gained of the consistent earnest- 
ness shown by Mr. Cleveland in this new, voluntary, 
and unpaid work by some extracts from his correspon- 
dence, during this first and vital year, with the secre- 
tary. He spent the summer in New Hampshire, with 
one or two trips to New York to attend meetings. At 
the beginning of the second month's history of the trus- 
tees, when the difficulty in filling vacancies with fitting 
men was causing a good deal of anxiety, he wrote, on 
July 16, 1905, from Tamworth: 

I should be exceedingly pained and disappointed if, with 
absolute freedom from outside influence and disturbance, we 
are not able to discharge the duties of our trust in a manner 
as wise and useful in every direction as the fallibility of 
human nature will permit. 

The name of one of Mr. Cleveland's friends had been 
presented for consideration by one of the trustees, and 
I had written him something about the matter. In reply, 
on July 20, he said: 



234 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

I expect you somewhat misunderstood my feeling in regard 

to Mr. . I have the highest admiration for his business 

ability and his qualities of heart and conscience. I am per- 
sonally very fond of him and would trust all I have in his 
hands. He has been concerned in some underwriting opera- 
tions; and while I have no idea that these have been in the 
least questionable, measured by accepted standards, I feel that 
underwriting just at the present time is, or ought to be, a little 
out of fashion among Directors of the Equitable Assurance 
Society. Solely for this reason I have been inclined to allow 
this otherwise good name to drop out of consideration. 



VIII 

By this time he was consulted about the general policy 
of the society — although it lay entirely outside of his 
duties or powers. So in the same letter he expressed 
an opinion upon what was then, as now, a burning 
question in insurance circles: 

I cannot rid myself of the idea that "Agencies" and their 
relationship to the Society should, in their turn, and in a 
careful manner, challenge an important amount of Mr. Mor- 
ton's exceedingly promising and encouraging labor of re- 
habilitation. I have, however, great confidence in the efficiency 
of his work, so splendidly begun, and I do not believe he will 
allow himself to be misled by Agency influences. 

The sense of responsibility grew upon him as he came 
into closer touch with the dtities of his place. This was 
shown in the letter next quoted: 

I am constantly thinking of the responsibility of my Trus- 
teeship, and I have never been more anxious to do exactly 
the best thing for the interests legitimately involved. I so 
fully realize the surroundings of these interests and so fully 
appreciate Mr. Ryan's encouragement that I shall feel almost 



GROVER CLEVELAND 235 

disgraced if the remainder of the Directors chosen by the 
Trustees are not exactly the men needed for the emergency. 

Like expressions appeared in most of the letters from 
this time forward until the most serious difficulties had 
been overcome. Some of these follow: 

July 23, 1905. Somehow I am impatient to be doing 
something to help the Equitable conditions, but I suppose 
there is nothing I can do. 

August 20. At the same time, I regard my Trustee duties 
as of paramount importance, having the first claim upon my 
time and attention. 

October i. Somehow it seems I have an unusual number 
of things on my mind just now which perplex and embarrass 
me, but, above all others, I feel that the duties of my Trustee- 
ship demand my first attention. 



IX 

During the succeeding year the work of the trustees 
continued to be arduous and difficult. The new admin- 
istration was getting its hand in most successfully. 
Among other questions demanding close attention was 
that known as "mutualization"— the only one upon 
which Mr. Ryan's attitude in buying the majority stock 
had bound the trustees. He was determined upon this 
as the proper policy, and so action was taken which 
anticipated the laws passed at the succeeding session of 
the Legislature, and to the policy-holders there was sub- 
mitted the election of directors who should represent 
them in the board. Accordingly elaborate circulars, 
very carefully drawn by Mr. Cleveland himself, were 
sent to more than 350,000 policy-holders of record. 
These were accompanied by blank ballots and also by 



236 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

proxies of which the trustees were the official com- 
mittee. 

The task of communicating with this vast army was, 
in itself, a difficult one; but it was easy in comparison 
with that of making them understand what was wanted. 
When the polls were closed, within a day or so of the 
annual election in December, returns had been received 
from 90,000 persons, of whom just over 94 per cent, 
had sent proxies and the remainder a jumble of ballots. 
The trustees were thus given absolute authority to rep- 
resent and vote for the policy-holders. 

Some curious results were revealed. 

One candidate in a Southern State, for whom the 
agents of the society had canvassed in the preceding 
year with such success that practically every qualified 
voter of the society within this jurisdiction, some 3,500 
or 4,000, had sent a letter or signed a petition, now re- 
ceived less than fifty votes. The fact that the names 
of the trustees appeared upon the proxy had convinced 
practically every interested person that his interests 
were safe, and hence there was no longer even the 
smallest concern over the matter. So quickly had the 
excitement died out when a great commanding charac- 
ter was put into the forefront of the battle. 

The work of taking the ballot was greatly increased 
by Mr. Cleveland's determination that no technicalities 
should count. Rules had been carefully devised and the 
clearest of all possible explanations made, but, in spite 
of all efiforts, many persons did not understand. His 
insistence upon this care probably rendered it necessary 
to answer from three hundred to five hundred letters 
a day by entering more fully into details, so that no ex- 
cuse would remain for complaint. Many proxies were 
sent to him in Princeton, and their transmission was 



GROVER CLEVELAND 237 

generally accompanied by instructions of which the fol- 
lowing is a sample : 

Princeton, October 23, 1906. 

My dear Mr. Parker: 

I enclose another batch of proxies, etc., for your care and 
attention. I think the proxies sent to me by policy-holders 
in the "Mutual" or any other Company, except the Equitable, 
ought to be returned to the senders with the statement that 
I cannot act for them. 

I am exceedingly anxious, however, that every policy-holder 
in the Equitable Society who evinces a desire to vote, either 
by proxy or personally, should be aided in every possible way ; 
and to that end I want the utmost care to be exercised in the 
correction of their mistakes and misapprehensions. You will 
notice one case in which a policy-holder fears that a proxy 
is invalid if not made more than two months prior to the day 
of election. 

This is a curious interpretation of the "directions," but 
the matter ought to be explained to the writer. 

Yours very truly, 

Grover Cleveland. 
George F. Parker, Esq. 
120 Broadway, 
New York. 



X 

When the organization work of the trustees was fairly 
imder way— as soon as its effect upon the country and 
public sentiment could be fairly seen and measured— 
Mr. Cleveland said to me : 

On the whole, I have never been so well satisfied 
with any public service which it has fallen to my lot 
to render as with what I have been able to do as 



238 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Trustee of the Equitable. Its results have more 
than repaid me for the labor done and the anxieties 
through which I have passed. I can now see that 
the scandals growing out of the insurance irregu- 
larities were really serious outward manifestations 
of popular hysteria. Nothing could have been more 
fortunate than to have the situation met in the 
courageous way taken by Mr. Ryan, Looking back, 
it is next to impossible to imagine what harm might 
have been done to confidence and credit had not some 
such action been taken just in the nick of time. There 
was serious danger lest the whole fabric of industry 
should be endangered for a time. 

This expression of opinion was repeated many times 
and always with thankfulness for any aid which he had 
been able to extend in averting the worst. In 1907, when 
the panic was to come in real earnest, he always insisted 
that if appeal had not been made to conservative and 
conserving sentiment in good time, the results would 
have been infinitely more hurtful, for the reason that 
the public ofiScials who had fanned the flames became, 
in due time, powerless to do anything effective in check- 
ing or extinguishing them. 

This is, perhaps, a proper place to record his opinion 
of Mr. Ryan, who had been the medium for drawing 
him into the insurance situation. It was expressed at 
my last interview with him. about a fortnight before 
his fatal illness : 

When I was first asked to do something to allay 
the excitement accompanying the insurance scan- 
dals, I hesitated to take part in the movement. It 
interfered with the quiet which I needed and had 



GROVER CLEVELAND 239 

found. I was also fearful lest I might be drawn 
into something I did not understand and was too old 
to learn. I had long known Mr. Ryan, but the fact 
that he was supposed to bear such close relations to 
great financial ventures made me doubt whether or 
not I could have the free hand necessary to do good 
service, if I was to do it at all. I finally concluded 
to accept and, as you know better than anybody, 
without any assurances whatever, for I did not see 
Mr. Ryan until the formal trust deed was signed. 

From that dav to this, I have never had from him 
any request of even the simplest character to do 
anything in Equitable matters which had the small- 
est relation to what were supposed to be his interests. 
I have seen him seldom, at times not for three-months 
intervals, and I must say that, even when I have felt 
that I needed his advice and assistance, he has gen- 
erally declined to express an opinion one way or the 
other. I shall always have the clearest reasons for 
holding him in respect. I consider that he has done 
a great public service and in the most unselfish way. 



XI 

For some time Mr. Cleveland had been looking for a 
favorable opportunity to say these things to the public, 
and finally, after much solicitation for an interview on 
politics for a New York paper, he saw one of its re- 
porters and consented, just before his last birthday, to 
talk about insurance. Here was his long-sought oppor- 
tunity, and he spoke both freely and fully. When the 
interview appeared he had gone to Lakewood, from 
which he was to return only to die. It was clear at once 



240 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

that some opinions, never held and never expressed, had 
been interpolated into it. Within an hour of reading I 
wrote calling his attention to the article and offering to 
go at once to Lakewood in case he wanted to disavow 
publicly the sentiments attributed to him— something, 
by the way, that he seldom did even in the most flagrant 
cases, because, as he always insisted, the truth would 
never overtake a lie of this sort. He was then in a very 
serious condition, and few of his friends believed that he 
would ever leave Lakewood alive. Nevertheless one 
of the last letters he wrote was the following: 



Lakewood, New Jersey, 

March 24, 1908. 
My dear Mr. Parker: 

I do not think it would be at all profitable to follow up by 
formal denial the misrepresentation that has been allowed to 
appear in good company, so far as what I said concerning Mr. 
Ryan. It seems to me easy to discover how much the few 
words, put in for the purpose of singling them out for edi- 
torial use, are at variance with the purpose and intent of the 
interview. I intended to give evidence of Mr. Ryan's useful 
and disinterested conduct in affairs with which I was familiar 
— and I certainly had no idea of intimating that in his large 
affairs he acted without appreciating or caring for the dis- 
tinction between right and wrong. 

Nothing I said to the reporter could, with decency, truth, 
or fairness, be twisted to have any such meaning. . . . 

Yours truly, 

Grover Cleveland. 
George F. Parker, Esq., 

Equitable Building, 
New York, 



GROVER CLEVELAND 241 



XII 

Nothing could have been more fortunate for Mr. Cleve- 
land than this last excursion into public life. He was in- 
terested deeply in the work; he was pleased to know that 
he was again doing good; and, most important of all, 
he was drawn anew into the large influences and asso- 
ciations which had become a second nature to him, and 
that, too, without interfering in the least with the new 
circle of friends attracted to him on the scenes of his 
quiet and retirement. He found himself discussing and 
deciding upon questions scarcely less important to the 
country than when its destiny was largely in his keeping. 
He was able, also, to renew acquaintance with friends 
of earlier years, as they flocked about him in the inter- 
vals of leisure left him from his serious employments. 
Taking everything together, one is inclined to agree 
with his own judgment that nothing in all his life ex- 
ceeded in importance or usefulness the public service he 
was enabled to render during the last three years of 
his life. 



16 



CHAPTER XV 

RIVALS — PREDECESSORS AND SUCCESSORS 



THE Opinions which Mr. Cleveland held about 
those who came into his life as rivals in con- 
tests, either for nomination or election, and 
about his predecessors and successors found free ex- 
pression and were always interesting. 



Alonzo B. Cornell. He seemed never to have formed 
any distinct idea about Alonzo B. Cornell, whom he suc- 
ceeded as Governor. This was probably due to the fact 
that, in accordance with the traditions of the office, each 
man was supposed to initiate his own policy, with only 
the smallest possible relation to that of his predecessors, 
whether direct or remote. While, in most States, the 
retiring Governor sends an annual message to the Legis- 
lature, reviewing the progress of the year and making 
recommendations, in New York the incoming Governor 
performs this function, thus putting each new official 
upon his mettle. He is compelled to gather the neces- 
sary information, and so to digest it as to let the people 
know at once what his policy is to be. It is this custom 
which gives the Governor of New York a distinct promi- 
nence. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 243 

II 

Charles J. Folger. As Mr. Cleveland's active public 
service receded into the past he fell oftener into a remi- 
niscent mood concerning the men with whom he had 
either been associated or who had entered into his life. 
I do not recall that — in the early years of our associa- 
tion, close as it was, comprehending in conversations the 
almost infinite round of questions, interests, and men 
with which he had had to deal — I heard him speak often 
of the campaign of 1882, so far as it related to his elec- 
tion as Governor. But, at Princeton, in November, 
1907, the name of Charles J. Folger, the Republican 
candidate in that year, was brought up by him in some 
way. He at once manifested unusual interest, and I 
saw that this name appealed both to his sentimental side 
and to his inherent idea of fairness. He then said in 
substance : 

I do not think I ever saw Mr. Folger, either before 
or after the election, but, in all my experience, there 
has been no man for whom I have felt a deeper and 
more genuine sympathy. Here was a man, dis- 
tinctly of a legal and judicial mind, who, with a long 
and successful career as a judge in our courts, was 
elected finally to serve for many years as the judge 
of the most dignified tribunal in his State. 

Unaccustomed to the hurly-burly of politics, he 
was transferred from this office and became, unwill- 
ingly, I was always informed. Secretary of the 
Treasury in Washington, and that, too, at a time 
and under conditions which made the office a hotbed 
of party intrigue and ambition. He found an un- 
familiar atmosphere and unpleasant surroundings, 



244 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

so, while not essentially ambitious, he consented to 
take the nomination of his party for Governor. Here 
the conditions were still less familiar and more dis- 
tasteful. He knew little about party machinery and 
less about the men who made and ran it, so that he 
was nominated without effort on his own part and 
really at the dictation of the Federal administration, 
which was said to be looking to the practical politics 
of the future. He was unfitted for such a position. 
Of quiet, studious tastes, independent, to an unusual 
degree, he found himself the centre of innumerable 
movements beyond his ken, and over which, owing to 
the manner of his nomination, he could have no con- 
trol. He was denounced as a tool, a mere machine- 
made product of latter-day political methods, and, 
as a result, his defeat was the most crushing which, 
up to that time, had come to any candidate for a 
State office. 

To me, it seems the very irony of fate that a man 
of this type, with a career distinguished by con- 
spicuous and honorable service, and of such unusual 
capabilities, well known to the public, should have 
been defeated by me, then wholly unknown outside 
my own small community. I must confess that, even 
now, a quarter of a century after the event, I am not 
able to understand it. However, as it was to be, 
nothing has given me more pleasure than to feel that 
no word, either of mine or of my friends and sup- 
porters, was ever spoken or written derogatory to 
the character of a man for whom, then and ever 
since, I have entertained the most profound respect. 

I have no doubt, either, that, coming suddenly into 
the higher public life in this way, I was warned of 
one of the worst pitfalls to be found there. Even if 



GROVER CLEVELAND 245 

it had been possible for me to use the power of a 
p^reat office for purely partizan or personal purposes, 
the effects of such a policy stood out before me so 
prominently on the very threshold that I could only 
'have heeded the warning. I encountered a great 
deal of abuse when President for my refusal to take 
part in local politics in my own and other States : to 
help my friends, as it was sometimes called. If I 
had ever been tempted to do so, I should only have 
had to think of the gubernatorial campaign of 1882, 
and the rebuke then administered to such a policy. 



Ill 

James G. Blaine. Mr. Cleveland never spoke much 
about Mr. Blaine or the personalities incident to the 
Presidential campaign of 1884. True to his nature and 
to that inborn spirit of fairness which was one of his 
strongest characteristics, during that campaign he took 
the most determined stand upon the policy of retaliation 
— so far as the private life of his opponent was con- 
cerned. At one time, one of the leading managers of 
the national Democratic campaign informed the candi- 
date that, on the following morning, a very scandalous 
exposure of his opponent would be published, and that 
this was to go out with official sanction from the com- 
mittee. When Mr. Cleveland told me the story, many 
years later, his strong sense of indignation was still 
manifest. He said that he told his informant that, if 
any such publication was made, either with official ap- 
proval or even with connivance, he would at once resign 
from the ticket, thus, so far as he was concerned, not 
only disavowing and disproving his participation in so 



246 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

dastardly an act, but by this effective protest making it 
impossible to employ such tactics in a political cam- 
paign. 



IV 

Chester A. Arthur. So far as President Arthur was 
concerned, his successor entertained for him the very 
highest respect both as to his ability and honesty and to 
v^hat he called the success of his administration. He 
could never speak with too great enthusiasm about Mr. 
Arthur's settled purpose, the depth of his patriotism, 
or the courage with which he had resisted the financial 
and demagogic heresies of his time. From the point 
of view of party management and foresight he professed 
his inability to understand the fatuity which had denied 
him the Republican nomination in 1884. He attributed 
his own success, in a large degree, to what he deemed 
Republican short-sightedness. 

No men, so placed, could have held more agreeable 
relations than those which characterized the two men 
who, on March 4, 1885, rode from the Executive Man- 
sion to the Capitol and returned, after having exchanged 
places. It is a pleasure, after these many years, thus to 
record the good opinion in which these two men, who 
had passed through so many strange political vicissi- 
tudes, held each other. 



Benjamin Harrison. Of Benjamin Harrison, both a 
successor and predecessor, he had mixed opinions, and 
yet all of them were either favorable or apologetic. He 




CIIESTKK A. AKTIHR 
Twenty-first President of the United State 



GROVER CLEVELAND 247 

criticized the attitude of his administration on the silver 
question, and yet, knowing the difficuUies surrounding 
it and the forces to be deaU with, he reahzcd how strong 
had been the conflict between pubhc duty and private 
opinion on the one hand, and the greed of interests and 
partizan demands on the other. He never entirely for- 
gave President Harrison for permitting the surplus, 
carefully built up by himself and bequeathed as a public 
legacy, to be dissipated by idle and unjust pension laws 
and by extravagant appropriations, the demand for 
which he himself had so successfully resisted. 

But it was in commenting upon the judicial ap- 
pointments of his successor that he broke into real en- 
thusiasm. He used to say that no President in the coun- 
try's history had excelled Benjamin Harrison in the 
care he showed, in the absolute determination, to get the 
best men available for filling vacancies or new positions 
on the bench of the Federal courts. He was especially 
earnest in his approval of the breadth of view shown 
in the first appointments to the Circuit Court of Appeals, 
and each successful assertion of their authority by the 
new judges was followed by him with interest. He often 
said, in respect to Harrison's whole iudicial policy: 

I cannot see how he does it. I thought I realized 
the importance of the Federal courts, resisting mere 
party pressure and giving to my appointments the 
most jealous care, but I must confess that Harrison 
has beaten me. 

General Harrison had the reputation of being a cold 
man, when, in fact, this efifect came largely from shy- 
ness. Of commanding ability, certainly the greatest 
lawyer his State has thus far produced, he came slowly 



248 



RECOLLECTIONS OF 



and painfully to his own. Few men have done more hard 
and unrequited work for party and country in their early 
careers before commanding recognition. If a difficult 
speaking canvass was to be made or a hopeless candi- 
dacy was to be accepted, Harrison was sure to be called 
upon, because nobody else could equally well meet such 
an emergency. All this, together with his tastes and 
his retired nature, cut him off from the society of all 
except a few close friends. 

When the time for the inauguration of 1889 came 
around, President Cleveland, who was a stickler for 
official etiquette and so never overlooked anything that 
ought to be done, gave special attention to the comfort 
of his successor and his family. Soon after the two men 
returned from the Capitol, Harrison, seldom demonstra- 
tive or enthusiastic, seeing about him all the prepara- 
tions and evidences of thoughtf ulness, said to a friend : 
"Well, whatever else may happen, I shall at least know 
how to go out of office when my time comes." Four 
years later, to a day, the White House was swept, gar- 
nished, amply furnished with eatables and drinkables 
by the man who showed how well he had learned the 
lesson of how to provide for the advent of the man who 
had taught it. 



VI 

William McKinley. Upon my first visit to Mr. 
Cleveland in Princeton after the close of the Spanish 
War, on one of my home-coming trips, he spoke a good 
deal of President McKinley. During Mr. Cleveland's 
first administration he had come little into contact with 
Mr. McKinley in a personal way, and in the second the 
latter was Governor of Ohio. Naturallv, the two men 




r.,|,vr,sMI,j I'acli Ilr..lh,-: 



WILLIAM McKINLKY 
From a photojjranh taken at Pahn Heach 



GROVER CLEVELAND 249 

were poles apart on the tariff— the one question which 
so much engaged the attention of both; but this issue 
had been entirely thrust aside by its necessary aban- 
donment in the campaign of 1896 and by the result of 
an election in which both had done what they could to 
preserve the public credit and thus maintain the na- 
tional honor. At the time in question and also on sev- 
eral later occasions, Mr. Cleveland recounted to me the 
particulars of his last and most striking interview with 
Mr. McKinley, held when one man was about to lay 
down the responsibilities of high office which the other 
was to take up. The incoming President spent the 
evening with his predecessor at the Executive Man- 
sion, and of their conversation, of which I made notes 
at the time, and also when the incident was again de- 
scribed, ]\Ir. Cleveland said: 

I was struck by the feeling of sadness which char- 
acterized this interview on both sides. The one 
question on Mr. McKinley's mind was the threat- 
ened war with Spain. He went over with me, care- 
fully, the steps that I had taken to avert this catas- 
trophe, emphasized his agreement with the policy 
adopted, and expressed his determination to carry 
it out so far as lay in his power. He adverted to 
the horrors of war, and was intensely saddened 
by the prospect incident to the loss of life, the de- 
struction of property, the blows dealt at the higher 
morality, and the terrible responsibility thrust upon 
him. In parting he said: "Mr. President, if I can 
only go out of office, at the end of my term, with the 
knowledge that I have done what lay in my power to 
avert this terrible calamity, with the success that has 
crowned your patience and persistence, I shall be the 



250 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

happiest man in the world." I never saw him again 
after the inauguration, but of all the interviews I have 
ever held during the whole of my career, none ever 
impressed me as being so full of settled sadness and 
sincerity, and no man ever gave me a stronger idea 
of his unyielding determination to do his duty when 
thus confronted by a great crisis. 



VII 

Theodore Roosevelt. When I saw Mr. Cleveland for 
the first time after the accession of Mr. Roosevelt to 
the Presidency, he spoke with great freedom of his 
association with him. With many of President Roose- 
velt's characteristics he was in strong sympathy, but the 
one fact that struck me during my interview and has 
since stood out in my memory was his recognition of a 
quality or gift which it took the American people many 
years fully to learn and to understand. This point was 
emphasized by him then and in many subsequent talks, 
as the trait in question became more and more strongly 
developed. From them all, I extract the following 
declaration : 

Roosevelt is the most perfectly equipped and the 
most effective politician thus far seen in the Presi- 
dency. Jackson, Jefferson, and Van Buren were 
not, for a moment, comparable with him in this re- 
spect. When I was Governor, he was still a very 
young man and only a member of the Assembly: 
but it was clear to me, even thus early, that he was 
looking to a public career, that he was studying 
political conditions with a care that I had never 



GROVER CLEVELAND 251 

known any man to show, and that he was firmly 
convinced that he would some day reach prominence. 
I must, however, confess that I never supposed that 
the Presidency would come within the scope of his 
aspirations so early in life. 



CHAPTER XVI 

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 



IT is well known that, from the beginning of his public 
career, Mr. Cleveland took a firm stand in favor of 
reform in the Civil Service. Although not a mem- 
ber of the association in Buffalo devoted to the promo- 
tion of the merit principle, he was in touch with its ac- 
tive spirits. It was natural that training and ideas as 
well as common sense should make him friendly to any 
such movement. His relation to politics before his 
nomination as Governor in 1882 was local, but he 
aligned himself with the issue at the earliest oppor- 
tunity. 

It has generally been assumed that this alignment was 
first suggested by the Civil Service Reform Association, 
and I have before me the original inquiry of this body 
bearing date October 20, 1882, signed by George Wil- 
liam Curtis, John Jay, Everett P. Wheeler, and William 
Potts, as its committee, in which the opinions of the 
association were emphasized in a neatly engrossed letter 
of seven pages. Mr. Cleveland replied from Buffalo, 
under date of October 28, only a few days before the 
election, repeating the arguments set forth in his letter 

of acceptance issued three weeks earlier. 

35s 



GROVER CLEVELAND 253 



II 

Among the papers discovered in the house-cleaning pro- 
cess at No. 816 Madison Avenue, New York City, after 
his return from the White House, the following corre- 
spondence was found as well as some others unsus- 
pected. All of them were turned over to me, at the time, 
and put away with other Cleveland archives for future 
use or reference. Among others, we came across a 
letter of which the following is that portion pertinent 
to the subject under treatment: 



Elmira, October 2, 1882. 
Hon. Grover Cleveland. 
My dear Sir: 

I inclose you a letter which I have received from my 
friend Professor Fiske of Cornell LTniversity. It contains 
some suggestions which I think should be well considered. 
He is friendly to both you and me ; and I think it would be 
well as far as possible to follow his suggestions. I am per- 
mitted to send you the letter as I shall be unable to see you 
personally. Professor Fiske can do each of us great good, 
and I have no doubt will do so in case your letter of acceptance 
is satisfactory. 

I remain, 

Hastily but faithfully yours, 

David B. Hill. 



This covered a letter from the late Professor Willard 
Fiske of Cornell University, which is followed by the 
suggested draft of a paragraph for the letter of accept- 
ance : 



254 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Astor House, New York City, 

September 23 [1882]. 
My dear Mr. Hill: 

I congratulate you upon your nomination, and hope to be 
able, ten weeks from now, to congratulate you upon your elec- 
tion. This last can be rendered certain in one very simple 
way. 

There are — to put the figures low — twenty thousand voters 
in the State who are especially interested in the matter of a 
reform of the national civil service. This is, in fact, just 
now, their only interest in political matters. If Mr. Cleve- 
land's letter of acceptance (which, for obvious reasons, I trust 
will not be made public until after his competitor has com- 
mitted himself) contains a paragraph like the one I inclose^ 
(simply as a sample specimen),' you and he will secure not 
only these twenty thousand votes, but the help of three of 
the most influential Republican journals in the State. 

But there must be no mistake in the character of the utter- 
ances. They must show unmistakable sincerity, and they must 
show that Mr. Cleveland knows what he is talking about. 
All the politicians can use the phrase "civil service reform" 
with admirable glibness, but the twenty thousand reading and 
thinking men who have given study to this subject, can tell 
by a single sentence whether the speaker or writer had any 
honest opinion on the matter or not. There must be no 
vagueness and no exhibition of ignorance. 



1 Suggested Draft of Paragraph for Letter: 

I am heartily in favor of a most thorough reform in the Nation's admin- 
istrative service — such a reform as shall give us officials in the civil 
branches of the government as devoted, as honest, and as well fatted for 
their duties as are the officers of the military branch. I believe that the 
lower grades of the civil service should be filled by the most intelligent 
youth of the land, selected by means of honestly conducted and thorough 
competitive examinations, which shall be freely open to the sons of all 
classes of citizens ; that these, as they acquire the necessary training, shall 
be promoted by merit to the higher grade ; and that the tenure of all such 
offices as are filled by appointment shall be, as in every other business, 
during good behavior; so that, in this manner, the service may be speedily 
purified and rendered efficient. I am unalterably opposed to the system of 
appointment by favoritism, or through partizan influences, as I also am to 
the levying of assessments for partizan purposes upon the employees of the 
government — a body of men whose plain duty is the service of the whole 
people and not that of any political body. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 255 

This suggestion, if carried out, will not lose you a single 
vote in the Democratic party. It will gain you, I believe and 
know, nearer thirty than twenty thousand Republican votes. 

Very truly yours, 

W. FiSKE. 

The Hon. D. B. Hill, 

etc.. etc., etc. 



Of course, neither Mr. Hill, the candidate for Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, nor Professor Fiske then knew that 
Mr. Cleveland would insist upon framing his own lan- 
guage, which, in his acceptance letter of October 8, was 
as follows : 

Subordinates in public place should be selected and retained 
for their efficiency, and not because they can be used to ac- 
complish partizan ends. The people have a right to demand, 
here, as in cases of private employment, that their money 
should be paid to those who will render the best service in 
return and that the appointment and tenure of such places 
should depend upon ability and merit. 

The system of levying assessments, for partizan purposes, 
on those holding office or place, cannot be too strongly con- 
demned. Through the thin disguise of voluntary contribu- 
tions, this is seen to be naked extortion, reducing the com- 
pensation which should be honestly earned and swelling a fund 
used to debauch the people and defeat the popular will. 

After more than a quarter of a century's delay, it is 
interesting to record the fact that Grover Cleveland and 
David B. Hill were in perfect accord upon the suggestion 
made by Professor Fiske. It carries with it a sense of 
doing justice to both. That they should have united in 
recognizing both the right and policy of Civil Service 
Reform, and have been among the earliest of the influ- 



256 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

ential members of their party to see its importance, is 
certainly creditable to them and has had far-reaching 
results in promoting the idea and the policy behind it. 



Ill 

It lies wholly beyond my purpose to deal historically with 
the purely public record and policy of Mr. Cleveland, 
as President, so far as the enforcement of the Civil Ser- 
vice laws is concerned. These are well typified by the 
removal of an office-holder of the party opposed to him 
for "ofifensive partizanship" and of one of his own ap- 
pointees for "pernicious activity"— phrases which have 
passed into the political nomenclature of the time. His 
close watch over even the smallest places when they bore 
a relation to the enforcement of the law, whether in 
spirit or letter, is no less familiar. Those who came 
near to him knew that there was no office, within the 
classified service, so unimportant that he refused to in- 
vestigate a charge made by a responsible person, or even 
by a meddling body. 

His insistence upon the four-year tenure for officials, 
and also his care in looking after details, are well illus- 
trated by the following letter : 

Executive Mansion, 

Washington. September ii, 1887. 
Dear Sir: 

I have examined the papers relating to the Morristown 
post-office and am glad to see that there is apparent unanimity 
in support of a good man for the place. 

On the question of the removal of the present incumbent, 
I am not so clear. The allegations are quite general in their 
character, and do not relate very distinctly to such conduct, 



GROVER CLEVELAND 257 

though some things are charged which I hy no means approve. 
No charge is made impeaching his efficiency or fitness in the 
discharge of his duty. I mean the mere office work between 
him and his patrons. He has been there a long time and has 
been permitted to remain thus far under this administration. 
His term expires in about four months. I suggest that our 
good friends be advised not to insist upon a removal in the 
present condition of the case. 

Yours very truly, 

Grover Cleveland. 
Thomas Spratt, Esq. 



IV 

Mr. Valentine P. Snyder, now president of the Na- 
tional Bank of Commerce in New York, was, during- 
the first Cleveland administration, one of the confiden- 
tial associates in Washington of Daniel Manning, Sec- 
retary of the Treasury, and Conrad N. Jordan, then 
United States Treasurer. In the course of his work he 
was assigned by the Secretary to make a careful inves- 
tigation of the record and character of an official high 
up in the service and with large responsibility. The 
case had been put oflf from time to time until Mr. 
Snyder was finally directed to make the inquiry, and 
to submit his report, with the assurance that it would 
be final. As he went deeper and deeper into it, he found 
that the suspected official had the strongest support 
from one of the President's most intimate personal 
friends. 

When the work was done and the report nearly ready, 
Mr. Snyder, not knowing the President very well, told 
the Secretary that he hesitated to go to the extreme lest 
he might either be offended or disavow the proposed 

17 



258 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

action; so, at his own suggestion, he went over to the 
Executive Mansion to lay the matter before the Presi- 
dent. The whole situation was carefully explained and 
all questions answered, when the personal element was 
finally developed. When doubt was expressed lest this 
might be permitted to interfere with the action of the 
department, the President rose to his feet on the other 
side of the table from Mr. Snyder, and bringing his 
fist down with all the emphasis of which he was capable, 
said: 

Snyder, I want you to understand that you are to 
pursue this matter to its remotest consequences. If 
you find that summary dismissal is right and proper, 
make your report to this efifect, and I will stand by 
you to the end. No personal interest on my part, or 
that of anybody else, shall be taken into account 
when the public service is in question. 

After this the man at the White House was no longer 
an enigma at the Treasury Department. 



In addition to the usual agencies for forming public 
opinion, there sprang up in the larger cities bodies 
known as Civil Service Reform Associations. In those 
days they were composed mainly of rich young men and 
the college graduates who, in that seemingly remote, 
primitive period, found this a way to enter what they 
thought was politics. So they assumed in these cases, 
as their special function, the execution of the new 
merit laws, then recently enacted, and to which the 
two Presidents, Arthur and Cleveland, to whom they 
owe their faint beginnings and their final success, had 



GROVER CLEVELAND 259 

given the most sympathetic attention. Neither of them 
ever failed or refused to Hsten to any complaint that 
might be made. 

But this did not always satisfy the zeal of the young 
men in question, to whom the words "mole-hill" and 
"mountain" were synonyms. No matter how careful an 
official might be in making removals of offensive parti- 
zans, or incompetents, or the mere deadwood, from the 
public service, or how honest he might be in filling their 
places under the system of examinations, these volun- 
tary associations— "these fool friends of Civil Service 
Reform," as Mr. Cleveland sometimes called them— 
would take up the smallest grievance of some useless 
person, and give it the public dignity of a formal charge 
against the responsible official. 

It was the policy of the President to insist upon an 
open investigation of these charges, however trifling 
they might be, by the Civil Service Commission: then, 
and through his first administration, a body with a Re- 
publican majority. I cannot recall that any one of these 
investigations, thus promptly and honestly made, re- 
sulted in establishing the alleged violations of the law, 
a fact which, in and of itself, gave the President and his 
attachment to the principle new strength with the coun- 
try. In a special way, it brought his appointees much 
closer to him, because it demonstrated that they had 
obeyed the law, in the spirit as well as in the letter. It 
strengthened their hands in their own communities and 
especially with the President himself. 

VI 

Towards the middle of the second administration it 
was necessary to procure a stenographer and assistant 



26o RECOLLECTIONS OF 

secretary for the Executive Mansion, to take the place of 
Robert Lincoln O'Brien, who had resigned. He was to 
be attached to the President, both as stenographer and 
as a sort of social secretary — one of the most confiden- 
tial of places. This grade of office having been included 
in the classified service, it was concluded that instead of 
a new applicant, a picked man from one of the depart- 
ments should be found and transferred to the Executive 
Office. Various names were canvassed and inquiries 
made as to the fitness of their owners for a post of such 
delicacy. A near friend of the President, Robert A. 
Maxwell of New York, who was then Fourth Assistant 
Postmaster-General, reported that he had in his office a 
young man of unusual qualities and fitness. He re- 
ported that he could recommend him thoroughly for the 
place, and although he would part with his subordinate 
with great regret, he would let him go if it were deemed 
a necessity. 

The name of the young man in question was George 
Bruce Cortelyou. After the matter had been fully can- 
vassed by the parties in interest as employers, it was 
mentioned to the subordinate, so that he might know 
what was expected of him and also that he might accept 
or decline, as he saw fit. During the campaign for the 
nomifiation of a Republican candidate for the Presi- 
dency before the Minneapolis Convention of 1892, Mr. 
Cortelyou, on this his first appearance in national poli- 
tics, was stenographer and secretary to L. T. Michener, 
formerly Attorney-General of Indiana and the official 
manager of the interests of President Harrison, who 
was a successful candidate for renomination. The dis- 
covery was soon made that the strange young man, al- 
though new to politics, was watchful in the matters con- 
fided to him, intelligent in dealing with the missions 




Confidential Steii 



GEORGE B. CORTELYOU 



jrapher to President Cleveland. First Secretarj- of Com, 
PostmasterGeneral. and Secretary of the Treasury 



GROVER CLEVELAND 261 

upon which he was sent, competent in the discharge of 
his duties, and, in pohtical management, most vital of 
all, discreet and close-mouthed. 

These qualities, united with an intimate association 
runnins: over a considerable period, made the two men 
close friends, with the result that the younger man 
went one day to the older for advice. He told the story 
already narrated and said that he would probably be 
called upon, in a few days, to decide whether or not he 
w^ould accept the transfer to the Executive Mansion as 
confidential stenographer to the President. "You know, 
General," he said, "that I have always been a strong 
Republican, and, as the President is a Democrat, I 
naturally hesitate to take this place, lest if some impor- 
tant executive secret should leak out, it might be dis- 
agreeable for me, in spite of my own innocence and of 
any precautions that I might take. I should like your 
advice on this question, which may easily become to me 
an important, and even a vital, one." 

General Michener replied: "Well, Cortelyou, I can 
understand your hesitation, but if I were in your place, 
I should put it entirely aside. This transfer may be a 
turning-point in your career. If you go to the White 
House it will carry with it many unexpected opportuni- 
ties for contact with public men and events. I '11 tell 
you what to do. Accept the position thus tendered, and 
when a convenient opportunity presents itself make the 
same representations to the President that you have 
made to me, and leave the decision of the question to 
him." 

This advice was followed, and the second or third 
time that the confidential stenographer found himself 
seated with the President, ready for his work, he faith- 
fully repeated to him the speech already rehearsed to 



262 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

his friend and no doubt many times to himself. The 
President, probably somewhat nettled by the interrup- 
tion, turned rather sharply and said : 'T don't care any- 
thing about your politics: all I want is somebody that 
is honest and competent to do my work." 



VII 

As a sequel to this story, to his dying day, Grover 
Cleveland never failed to recognize and to express the 
interest and confidence he felt in the young man thus 
introduced to him and whose rise was to be so rapid. 
During the exciting campaign of 1904, when the latter 
was Chairman of the National Republican Committee, 
and, in this capacity, came in for a great deal of severe 
criticism, Mr. Cleveland said to me with an evident feel- 
ing of sadness : "Nobody can ever make me believe that 
Cortelyou would do anything which was not honorable 
in the highest degree. Now, you mark my words," he 
continued, "before two years you will find out that 
Cortelyou is not the man responsible for the things for 
which he is now criticized." When the revelations of 
the insurance investigation came to light, I was repeat- 
edly reminded by Mr. Cleveland of his earlier predic- 
tions, couched in the old-fashioned form, "Did n't I tell 
you so?" 

At every point in his career, he was the firm sup- 
porter of the ideas of a reformed Civil Service, and yet 
he was far from approving the attitude of many of its 
professed friends. He always insisted that, so long as 
the system of party government prevailed in local con- 
cerns, it would not be possible to command the com- 
plete and perhaps logical merit service known only in 



GROVER CLEVELAND 263 

England. He believed that it was as honorable in a 
man to aspire to be postmaster of his town as to desire 
the Presidency, a governorship, or any other office of 
great dignity. 

He felt, too, that a true merit system would never be 
established while one party was kept so long in power 
that its devotees believed they had a sort of divine right 
to the offices and that members of the other were really 
incompetent. For this reason, if for no other, he was 
confident that his advent to power came at a vital time 
in the history of the merit movement, and that, in spite 
of the unjust criticism to which he had been subjected, 
he had been able to render it great service by breaking 
up the tradition that only the adherents of one party 
were fitted to carry on the affairs of Government. 



VIII 

In speaking of Mr. Cortelyou and his rapid promotion, 
there was. in Mr. Cleveland's attitude something more 
than mere personal admiration. He insisted that this 
ability to rise from the foot of the Civil Service ladder 
to almost the highest dignity in our society was the 
highest tribute that could be paid to the merit system 
itself, and he was especially proud that it could be so 
illustrated within a few years after it had been inau- 
gurated. 

He was of opinion that it even surpassed the work- 
ings of the system in England, whence we were sup- 
posed to have derived it. There the Civil Service, both 
at home and in the crown colonies and dependencies, 
was filled, in the lower grades and in the higher respon- 
sible places of a permanent character, with men who 



264 GROVER CLEVELAND 

had started with only the aid of a competitive examina- 
tion, but he could not recall, he said, an instance in 
which men had climbed up, whether rapidly or steadily, 
from the start until they had reached the highest Cabi- 
net honors. 

He argued from this, single example though it was, 
that we were likely to carry the merit system at least 
this step higher than i1? had gone in England, and thus 
demonstrate our ability fully to adjust it to our pecu- 
liar ideas and institutions and to make it, in its turn, a 
higher model for adoption or imitation in other coun- 
tries where the idea has not yet taken firm root. 



CHAPTER XVII 

PUBLIC PATRONAGE 



IN his relations with the members of his Cabinet, dur- 
ing both administrations, Mr. Cleveland gave that 
confidence so necessary in order to assure good 
work. He was thus able to command that respect and 
especially that frankness without which it was impossible 
to do anything with or for him — he had a genuine 
hatred for obsequiousness. No man that I have known 
had less use for flatterers or flattery. He wanted advice 
—no man could be more keenly solicitous for it— but it 
must be honest and open, otherwise it was not worth 
the giving and certainly not worth the taking. 

He not only sought this kind of help from individual 
members of his Cabinets, but he crossed the lines of 
departments and asked the opinion of one official about 
the work of the other, but only when it dealt with a gen- 
eral policy. In the purely local concerns of each de- 
partment, he never invited or permitted interference, 
nor did he have to deal with that inter-Cabinet log-roll- 
ing policy in which 

Tickle me, Davy, tickle me true, 
And in my turn I '11 tickle you too 
265 



266 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

so tends to become the settled product of many national 
and State administrations. He kept so close a grip upon 
all the Federal patronage that any attempts of this kind 
would surely have been discovered by him. 

He would often give as much attention and infinitely 
more time to some insignificant fourth-class post-office 
— not paying a salary of more than a few hundred dol- 
lars—than to one in a first-class city or to the most im- 
portant collectorship of a port. With him, in the matter 
of patronage, as in everything else, it was the principle 
involved and not the rank of the place, or the salary it 
commanded. He was as likely to resent the intrusion 
of a Senator, or a member of Congress, or a committee- 
man, in the filling of some apparently insignificant place 
as in the most important. He insisted that he did this 
because in the one case he must depend upon one or per- 
haps two men, while in the other he could get aid or 
opinion from a hundred different directions. A mis- 
take, in the one case, would not at once reveal itself, 
but would produce a dissatisfaction which could but 
fester or lie dormant for a time, only, in the end, to hurt 
the government service all the more, while public opin- 
ion, in respect to the larger place, would find a hundred 
vents which would be used at once. 



II 

Nor did he stand upon rank or dignity in getting in- 
formation about any question which was before him 
and deserved his attention. If he found that some 
assistant, or head of a bureau or division, knew a mat- 
ter better than his Cabinet adviser, he would cut all red 
tape and, instead of requesting that such a man write a 



GROVER CLEVELAND 267 

report on the case for submission to him, he would 
invite him over to the Executive Mansion and thresh it 
out face to face. Many of the most interesting stories 
that came to my knowledge while in Washington, as 
well as from meeting men through the succeeding years, 
were told me by men of this type. He at once put them 
at their ease, and showed them that he wanted real help 
from them, and not mere smooth words which might 
flatter him or his official advisers. The result of this 
frankness was that, without going behind anybody, or 
keeping himself hid away, he was always able to com- 
mand the advice he needed, and that of the best. Many 
a man holding a minor position was retained or pro- 
moted merely because he showed himself really helpful, 
and no effort of a politician or member of Congress 
could induce him to remove such an official. Working 
slowly, but without rest, having a peculiarly retentive 
memory of those with whom he came in contact, he 
would make the most careful inquiries in all proposed 
removals and see to it that men of the type described 
did not suffer, whatever their politics or however strong 
the pressure. 

While the patronage system under which he had to 
work made it necessary for him to consult thousands of 
advisers, both official and voluntary, he had a gift, in 
making appointments, for building up the government 
service rather than a personal machine for Congress- 
men or members at whose request the appointment was 
made. At no time in our recent history, perhaps in 
none since our earliest days, have so few politicians 
been able to use the patronage for keeping themselves in 
power, or some opponent out. In spite of his strong, 
assertive character, he was a born discourager of fac- 
tion. Nor would he have been able to learn even the 



268 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

rudiments of how to use the Federal offices for his own 
purposes. A postmaster or other official might or might 
not approve his policies— although the natural effect of 
this indifference and independence was in general to 
command support, because the whole was based upon 
devotion to principles rather than to men. 



Ill 

Judge Alton B. Parker sends me the following inter- 
esting story of his own experience with Mr. Cleveland: 

Early in Mr. Cleveland's first administration as President, 
he sent for me, and I went post-haste to Washington, going 
to his office in the morning, where I found him alone and 
at work. He said : "I have sent for you because I want you 
to take the position of First Assistant Postmaster-General." 
I was very much surprised, but, fortified by the rule which I had 
laid down at the beginning of my professional career not to ac- 
cept public office outside of the line of my profession, I said to 
him: "I thank you, Mr. President, but I do not want it." His 
reply was : "I did not suppose you would want it. I sent for 
you and asked you to take it because I think you can perform 
the duties of that office as I would like to have them per- 
formed and that you will. Perhaps," he continued, "you may 
not regard the office as of sufficient importance to warrant 
your acceptance." 

He then gave me his view of the responsibilities of the posi- 
tion, and added : "I have been sent here through the party and 
by the people to render a public service, and the men who con- 
tributed in sending me here ought to make sacrifices for the 
purpose of making the administration of affairs under my 
incumbency all that the people would have." I said to him : 
"You misunderstand me, Mr. President. You have paid me 
the greatest compliment of my life, and notwithstanding my 
rule not to have to do with any public office outside of pro- 
fessional bounds, I should feel obliged to accept it were it not 



GROVER CLEVELAND 269 

that I have a wife and children dependent upon me. At this 
time of my hfe I cannot throw up the larger income for the 
smaller one on their account." 

At this juncture Postmaster-General Vilas came in, and the 
President said to him : "Parker won't come." This an- 
nouncement was gratifying- to the Postmaster-General, whose 
candidate for the position for some time had been Adlai E. 
Stevenson, afterwards Vice-President. 



IV 

After his second election, which had been achieved as 
the result of his devotion to sound finance and in spite 
of the efforts, often personal and malignant, of its op- 
ponents, he was advised by many friends to adopt 
the policy of "thorough" in the matter of appointments. 
Some went so far as to insist that no man with the silver 
taint, even in its mildest form, should be preferred for 
so much as the smallest place. He refused even to con- 
sider such a policy. 

"What you advise may seem natural enough," he 
always insisted, "in view of our political history and 
practice, but its adoption would be fatal. We have suc- 
ceeded, thus far, because we have made our appeal to 
an enlightened public sentiment, and we cannot look 
for the 'permanent advance of sound ideas if we now 
abandon this policy and attempt to reach our ends by 
means of spoils. Besides, it would be unjust to thou- 
sands of men who, believing honestly though mis- 
takenly, as we are convinced, in free silver, have, never- 
theless, voted to put us into power again in spite of the 
avowed opinions of the men for whom they voted. No, 
if our cause must be maintained or strengthened by 
means of patronage, somebody else than I will have to 
do it." 



270 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Accordingly, he made no inquiries about the financial 
opinions of those appointed to places in the second ad- 
ministration. Besides, he gave rather more freedom 
to members of Congress in the making of appointments 
than had been the case from 1885 to 1889. This was 
due, for one reason, to the fact that many of these had 
been associated with him for a time and were, at least, 
presumably, more directly identified with his ideas and 
policies than had been true in the first instance. Then, 
he was confronted by issues which meant life and death, 
and so, neither time nor strength permitted him to give 
that attention to details which had formerly character- 
ized him. There was no letting up in principle in the 
matter of the reformed Civil Service, but, from neces- 
sity, more confidence was reposed in the great mass of 
men who had come to the front within the intervening 
eight years. 



He did not, I feel sure, foresee the temporarily untoward 
effects of this policy. All through the infected silver 
areas of the West a considerable number of members 
of Congress had been returned — carried into place by 
the Cleveland wave as it swept everything along before 
it. As the panic of 1893 and its resulting depression 
began to afifect public sentiment, these new men, many 
of them ill trained and worse equipped, joined in the 
wild clamor for free silver. In the meantime, they had 
filled many offices with their chosen appointees — prac- 
tically all of them opposed to the financial ideas and 
policies of the President. 

By 1895, many of these political accidents had been 
retired from Congress, so that, from this time forward, 



GROVER CLEVELAND 271 

they became open enemies rather than insincere but pro- 
fessed supporters. In that year, too, they had strength- 
ened their hold upon the party machine, which inckided 
hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the local postmasters 
and other minor Federal officials. These became the 
avowed advocates of free silver, with all the isms in- 
cluded in this policy, and it was they, men appointed to 
place by Mr. Cleveland, who furnished the dry and 
plentiful powder set off at Chicago in 1896 by Richard 
P. Bland and William Jennings Bryan, both of whom, 
it was generally believed, had, with conscious delibera- 
tion, used the patronage granted them by a Democratic 
President for organized opposition to all that he and the 
traditions of his party meant. Both Mr. Cleveland and 
Colonel Lamont used to tell how Mr. Bryan haunted 
the Executive Mansion and the departments in his search 
for patronage. 



VI 

In spite of the untoward results of this experiment, Mr. 
Cleveland insisted to the end that he had made no mis- 
take, that his friends were wrong and he was right. 
He believed that the whole question had to be fought 
out, that any temporizing with the patronage, or at- 
tempt to use it, would have either reacted at once upon 
the country, because opposed to all his professions and 
those of the administration, or would have promoted a 
tendency to compromise. In his view, one policy would 
have been as fatal as the other, while, by standing firmly 
for all the principles the party had espoused, it was 
merely a question of time when the country could again 
be brought to the support of sound, conservative opin- 
ions and tendencies. 



272 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

When this came, although it had involved temporary 
defeat, perhaps even the final break-up of a great party, 
he still believed that even this result was better than 
for financial ideas to remain crude and dangerous and 
the country to be put continually into peril from such 
heresies. In his view, it was far better that this fate 
should come to a party, for a time, than to have the dial 
on the clock of progress put back by the entire abandon- 
ment of the reformed Civil Service, which had made 
such rapid strides during the preceding quarter of a 
century. 



VII 

His Friends and the Offices. Among those who 
came nearest to him, Mr. Cleveland had the reputation 
of disliking applications for places from his friends, 
and it came to be a sort of understanding, even if not a 
proverb, that if you wanted anything in the way of 
favor the very worst way in the world to get it was to 
do something for the President or to get into close 
relations with him. He could never get into his mind 
why the man whose position or outlook in his business 
or profession was good should ever think, for a moment, 
of taking a subordinate or appointive office. He was 
prone to overlook, though he never belittled or forgot, 
the service which such men might give him as well as 
the Government. As a result, the chances were that if 
one of his friends sought a place, or was willing to take 
one, and there were two or three other candidates, he 
would prefer one of the latter. 

It will be recalled that his original Cabinet did not 
contain a man with whom he was intimate, and of 
these, all of whom became friends — as did everybody 
that came into close relations with him — none was pre- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 273 

ferred for appointment into the second Cabinet, and only- 
one, Mr. Bayard, for a place of any kind. The same was 
true in respect to the assistant secretaryships, the heads 
of bureaus and divisions, the law officers and advisers, 
and officials selected for responsible places in the 
Custom-House, Internal Revenue, Department of Jus- 
tice, Post-Office, and all through the Government. In 
no important instance did he reappoint the man of his 
first choice to the same place in the second Cabinet, and 
in only a small number of cases were such men given 
any official recognition at all. In most instances, how- 
ever, these men, from Cabinet officers through the whole 
gamut, were accorded a recognition much higher than 
new preferment: they became confidential advisers not 
only about their own successors, but on the patronage 
policy to be carried out in the States or communities 
with which they were most familiar. 



VIII 

If Mr. Cleveland had in his mind any general principle 
on these questions, it was this, which condenses many- 
conversations on the subject : 

If I have friends and they are real ones, both I 
and the public service need and will have their assist- 
ance and advice in a way which will enhance their 
position in the community in a far greater degree 
than any official place, where the tendency is to nar- 
row rather than to extend influence and responsi- 
bility. 

He always insisted that, from the personal point of 
view, the average local office was in no way a real pro- 
motion for the man who was successfully established 

18 



274 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

in profession or business, while, in many cases, it was 
doing him an injury to prefer him for an appointive 
office with a short and uncertain tenure. He further 
emphasized the point, never out of his mind, that, from 
the pubhc view, he had no right to appoint men to office 
as a reward for service to him. 

"By the accident of nomination and election," he 
would say, ''I am President, but I was first a private 
citizen, which I shall become again when my term is 
over, so that it would be an unfair exercise of tempo- 
rary power for me to use it for such purposes. It would, 
no doubt, be easier for me, personally, to go along the 
line of least resistance and ■ choose the men I know, 
rather than to pass a great number of men through the 
crucible in order to get one who will represent the best 
obtainable under perfectly free and fair conditions ; but 
I simply cannot do a thing merely because it is easier, 
when it may not represent what I think is right." 

On a day during the last winter of his life, in his 
Equitable offices, when in one of his reminiscent moods, 
he surprised me by saying: 

Parker, it has always been said that it was some- 
thing of a drawback to a man, if he wanted anything, 
to have been one of my friends, and I guess that, in 
some respects, this judgment was about right. 

Continuing, he explained: 

I simply could not bring myself to the point of 
using the public service, or of being open to the 
charge of using it, for personal ends. It would, 
however, be unjust to accuse me of discriminating 
against my friends, as my record shows, but I should 
rather a thousand times go to my grave with the 



GROVER CLEVELAND 



-/o 



reputation I have g"ained in this respect than to have 
had anybody say, with truth, that I had used official 
patronage for the payment of private debts. 



IX 

Of nothing in all his public career, whether in State or 
nation, was he prouder than of the character of his 
appointments. The making of them was very disagree- 
able work: but he never shirked it. He did seriously 
object to many methods used in seeking places. Of all 
things, he abhorred delegations, a crowd coming to im- 
press him with the virtues of a single man who was a 
candidate for any given office, perhaps one of compara- 
tive unimportance. He had small sympathy with the 
method that made a swan out of every neighborhood 
goose, simply because the goose was to be presented for 
a public office. 

He often expressed surprise at the general success of 
our patronage system, considering the unwonted and 
unnecessary pressure brought to bear, and always 
pointed to it as one of the potent illustrations of our sys- 
tem of society and government that, left to themselves, 
without fear or favor, men were compelled to work out 
their own political salvation. 

While it fell to him to establish the merit system upon 
enduring lines, both in the Government and in public 
opinion, he had small use for the men who, holding re- 
sponsible positions representing the policy of a party 
or an administration, insisted upon retaining their 
places when new men with opposing ideas came into 
power. He generally managed to make short shrift of 
such applicants for retention when their cases came 



276 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

before him for decision. At the same time, he would 
take a firm stand in favor of some man in whom recog- 
nized efficiency and personal modesty stood out as 
sturdy virtues. 

In his second administration, he could not move 
quickly enough to displace some of the men who, as he 
thought, had used Democratic or personal influence to 
keep themselves in office under President Harrison. If 
one did not know and recognize his almost infinite ca- 
pacity for detail, astonishment would ensue over the 
fact that he could remember these cases, or that, remem- 
bering, he would go to the trouble of removing one 
member of his party, originally chosen by him under a 
laborious system, when he must undergo the same tire- 
some process in choosing his successor. But this was 
his way, not for personal, but for public reasons. 

Taking it all in all, no President of the United States 
in our generation gave so much time or conscience to 
the patronage incident to his office, or hated it more, or, 
on the whole, was more successful in getting fairly good 
results. He expected his officials to represent his 
methods and policies and those of the party behind him 
— to deal fairly and openly with their part of the public 
— and yet he refused to use his power even to promote 
his tariff and financial ideas — a policy which, in the 
opinion of many of his warmest friends and supporters, 
was responsible for his own betrayal and the disruption 
of his party in 1896. 



The Cleveland Democrats. Few men in political life 
have shown the intense interest in their own appointees 
that Mr. Cleveland did during his first term in the 



GROVER CLEVELAND zyy 

Presidency, or have lield them to a closer, more clearly 
understood responsibility. It was seldom, indeed, that an 
appointment was made without something of a contest. 

The long exclusion from power of the party whose 
ideas and policies were again brought to the front had 
had two effects. In the first place, it had produced a 
good supply of men firmly convinced of their ability 
to carry on the duties of an important place, and of the 
fact that the party and the country were, to a large de- 
gree, dependent upon them for their success; on the 
other hand, the members of the party, outside of the 
South, had had little settled experience in public admin- 
istration. Where this opportunity had presented itself 
in a few States, it was fitful and uncertain. These con- 
ditions made necessary the greatest care, and the new 
President was so constituted that he could not turn over 
the patronage in given districts or States, in a wholesale 
way, to a group of legislators or committeemen. 

As an effect, there was never any lack of competitors 
for important places, so that, as the representatives or 
friends of each came before him, they made a distinct 
impression upon his mind. He not only watched their 
official work and kept in touch with their relations to 
their own communities, but he was continually getting 
from them information as to public and party sentiment, 
learning from a brief conversation, or a letter, the writ- 
ing of w-hich was rather encouraged, or through the 
medium of his private secretary. Colonel Lamont, what 
he most wanted to know. 



XI 

The fact should not be overlooked that we are here 
dealing wath a President who was more of a politician 



278 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

than the public has yet realized— one whose hand was 
always on the pulse of opinion through thousands of 
voluntary and intelligent agents. He was both suffi- 
ciently industrious and absorbed in his work and re- 
sponsibility to learn and know his business in all its 
details. If a member of Congress or a committeeman of 
any grade was consulted, he soon found that the friendly 
or suggested appointee was not his own agent, but that 
of the Government of the United States first, and then 
of the party in power, and that the same commanding 
personality was the head of both. 

Besides, he had a way of making an appointment to 
suit himself, and then impressing upon a Senator or 
Representative the fact that it would perhaps conduce 
to his peace of mind .if he gave his indorsement to a man 
of such claims and parts. Even to these men it was 
vital not to seem to lose influence in their neighbor- 
hoods. A Senator from Ohio thus found himself giving 
written indorsements for the appointment of men whom 
he hated, because, as he well knew, they would oppose 
his ambitions and weaken his power at every turn. 

But control over the agents of the Federal power, or 
watchfulness, did not stop with getting from them ad- 
vice or help, or knowledge of the conditions by which 
they were surrounded. The President kept in close 
touch with their way of wielding the power lodged in 
their hands. It was only natural that a great party 
excluded from power and influence, long in control, 
and having access to the newspapers and all other forms 
of expressing public opinion, should view with a jealous 
eye the actions of their rivals, who, as they had been 
claiming for years, had no capacity for carrying on the 
affairs of a great and complicated government. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 279 



XII 

All these influences contributed to give Mr. Cleveland 
a relation to the public service larger than that of any 
other President in our history. As a result of the 
care exercised in selection, and the authority conferred, 
these men themselves came to occupy, for the time, 
more than the ordinary prominence incident to their 
offices. They enjoyed the real support as well as the 
reflected authority inherent in the highest executive 
office, and that within their own places, and the Presi- 
dent treated them with a consideration seldom seen in 
our political life. They were more than official advisers 
working at a distance — they occupied a personal relation 
which made them feel that they were a component part 
in a great national movement and that, through it, they 
were contributing to the execution of large policies. 

When the administration came to an end in 1889, ^^ 
had, in an official way, drawn together a unique body 
— men of a type who, distributed throughout the whole 
country, were moved by the same ideas and inspired by 
the same purposes. They were not allied to the pro- 
fessional official class. Few bosses — that is, men with 
no idea except the use of brute force as the incident of 
party power — had been developed among them. In the 
main, they were not looking for reappointment to pub- 
lic office. W^ithin a year after retirement they had gen- 
erally come to the front as presidents or directors of 
banks, trust companies, insurance companies, and in 
other fiduciary relations, and gradually found their way 
into railroad companies and the largest business life of 
the time. Here they found themselves in an enlarged 



28o RECOLLECTIONS OF 

sphere of influence and developed both the willingness 
and the power to promote the great movement which 
culminated in the selection of Mr. Cleveland in 1892, 
and, later, were the very focus and centre of the cata- 
clysm which, four years later, was to overwhelm and 
engulf the forces of disorder and the advocates of na- 
tional dishonor. 

Never before had so many men, engaged in the na- 
tional public service, found such appreciation or under- 
standing by their chief as had these Federal office-holders 
under the first Cleveland administration. Whoever or 
wherever they were, they maintained a relation to their 
head quite as intimate as if they were all still in power 
and office. In the one case, as in the other, the majority 
seldom saw Mr. Cleveland, but the mails were always 
open, and he was constantly in communication with 
many of them concerning the state of public sentiment 
on the great questions of the day. He was always show- 
ing an interest in their personal prosperity as well as in 
the public work they were doing. 

A man of prominence from a State or large city could 
not be with him for a few minutes without finding him- 
self plied with questions about friends and followers in 
the neighborhood — those who had been associated with 
him. It was never the interest of the mere managing 
politician, seeking to strengthen his own lines, but the 
friend, really involved from the personal as well as 
from the comprehensive public point of view. When 
one of them would come into the public eye as a candi- 
date for some State office, or for some conspicuous ser- 
vice in business, or manifested an unusual public spirit, 
he was very likely to hear from Mr. Cleveland with a 
short letter of congratulation or thanks. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 281 

The inevitable result was that this man, so deeply 
interested on the human side, with none of the arts of 
the demagogue or of the selfish, scheming politician, 
rapidly built up. all unconsciously to himself, an almost 
perfect personal influence. It was an exhibition of that 
gratitude for favors received which gave the lie to the 
proverbial definition of this quality. When the time 
came for political action — and it was never absent — it 
would not have made the least difference, so far as 
party sentiment was concerned, whether Mr. Cleveland 
had or had not cared to be again nominated and elected 
President. It was known that he was more than indif- 
ferent, that he was even opposed to the plans of his 
friends, but this could not have been permitted to weigh 
in the balance when opposed to the wishes, the demands, 
and the concentrated power of an expanding circle of 
friends and supporters in every State, county, and city 
the country over. 

XIII 

From this point of view, the second administration can- 
not be compared with the first. Desirous though the 
President was to give the same close attention to the 
personnel of appointments, it was impossible to do so. 
From its earliest days the administration was confronted 
with almost every peril that can menace public authority 
—even to civil and foreign, war. Nothing but the most 
unremitting attention and the most prompt and cour- 
ageous action could avert national calamity. 

It was a period in our history when all the bad ele- 
ments seemed to be thoroughly in accord. An entailed 
panic and depression, for which the country had made 



282 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

only the smallest preparation, had produced hardships 
of the most serious character. It was necessary to in- 
voke new or unused powers, not for the assertion of the 
rational authority of the Government, but for putting 
down real as well as threatened violence. The national 
credit was to be asserted and maintained, and the public 
honor preserved. Besides, many other discouraging 
forces were to be taken into account. Our boasted 
power of assimilating new and foreign elements was 
taxed to the limit of its capacity, some developments in 
the public mind were beginning to exercise an unwhole- 
some influence upon our population, and the spirit of 
Jingoism — which may be defined as patriotism run to 
seed — was to be found among the many new articles of 
importation from other countries. 

For these reasons — to which must be added the silver 
treachery— the personnel of the public service, in the 
subordinate offices, was not so strong as in the first ad- 
ministration, nor has it exercised anything like the same 
influence upon the currents of opinion. One evident rea- 
son is found in the fact that, even if it had had the same 
commanding ability and union, the practical dissolution 
of the Democratic party, at the close of the second ad- 
ministration, would have weakened its power. When 
men must kick down the ladders by which they have 
climbed to power they are not likely to have either dis- 
position or opportunity to make much of an impression 
upon the prevailing styles of architecture. It has been 
the fate of the distinctive Cleveland forces, from the 
days of 1896 downward, to give their attention to the 
work of keeping the structure which they had created 
from falling upon them and their neighbors. The cam- 
paign of 1904, while it continued, did, indeed, constitute 
something like a temporary relief, but its untoward result 



GROVER CLEVELAND 283 

only served to show how serious the danger had been 
and how almost impossible the task of reconstruction 
seemed to be. 



XIV 

But, until the end, Mr. Cleveland manifested the keen- 
est interest in the great body of men who had followed, 
with such fidelity and tenacity, the leadership first devel- 
oped in 1876 and solidified in 1884. He had no doubts, no 
qualms of conscience, no regrets that he and these men 
had thus fought faithfully together during all the inter- 
vening vears. He still congratulated himself that he had 
represented what he thought to be one of the most ra- 
tional movements in the history of free government: 
the preservation of the people from their own excesses; 
and he often expressed the opinion that men more un- 
selfishly devoted to the good and wholesome had never 
been brought together. 

From a personal point of view, he deemed it the great- 
est pleasure of his life that, drawing men about him in 
a purely public way, so many of them had become his 
intimate friends. To the last, men strange to him in 
feature and often in name would find welcome at his 
home or his office simply because they made themselves 
known to him as faithful and devoted supporters of 
sound ideas of government. He took little credit to him- 
self—indeed, nothing like what he deserved— but this 
was in perfect keeping with his character. He looked 
upon the revival, at the close of the Civil War, of the 
party to w^iose principles he w^as so firmly attached, as 
the work of Horatio Seymour and Samuel J. Tilden ; 
and he regarded himself as the follower, to whom, in 
the chances of war and succession, had come the duty of 



284 



GROVER CLEVELAND 



taking up their work. So, while the forces and elements 
here described were known as Cleveland Democrats, it 
was a name given to a type which, in his opinion, was 
inherent in our free citizenship and essential, under 
whatever name or in whatever time they may live, to the 
maintenance of our institutions. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

ECONOMIC QUESTIONS 



IT was only natural that Mr. Cleveland, after his re- 
tirement from the Presidency in 1889, should, at the 
earliest opportunity, turn his attention to the study 
of questions of economy and finance. He felt the de- 
ficiencies of his early training in these subjects more 
keenly than in any other department of government— in 
reality, he soon saw that they included almost every 
other question. He was little given to the study of set 
treatises on any question— he had already reached the 
epigrammatic conclusion that ''it is a condition which 
confronts us— not a theory"— but went direct to the 
writings of the men who, from the earliest days of our 
history, had administered our fiscal laws. 

Nor did he set undue store by the experience of other 
countries, so far as their taxing, or banking and cur- 
rency, systems were involved. He recognized that, in 
order to influence our people, it was necessary to narrow 
the circle, to keep before them, at all times, our own 
experience. He always held that both the tariff reform 
battle and the contest against the free coinage of silver 
had been unnecessarily complicated by reaching out for 
foreign examples, thus involving the intrusion of wages 

28s 



286 RECOLLFXTIONS OF 

and prices, facts which, until we had entered actively 
into competition in manufactured products, were not 
wholly germane to the discussion. He believed our own 
periods of reasonable tariffs had so exemplified the doc- 
trines for which he contended that arguments drawn 
from other countries often tended to weaken the cause, 
by confusing a busy people. 

In like manner, he held that our own varied experi- 
ments in discredited paper money and in coins issued at 
more than their real value were sufficient, without re- 
quiring our people to take account of like failures in 
other countries at different periods of history. He was 
wholly out of sympathy with the doctrine, not even yet 
wholly abandoned, "What do we care for abroad?" but 
he felt that, even in our short history, we had committed 
about all the economic sins and accepted the whole round 
of fallacies to be found in the history of all the countries 
from which our people had been drawn. 



II 

So when, for the first time, he had comparative leisure 
on his hands, he began to read the writings and to study 
the lives of four or five of the men who had carried on 
our political experiment in the earlier days. He limited 
himself mainly to Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson. 
Madison, and Jackson. 

He did not pursue these studies in an academic way, 
but for a distinct and settled purpose. He had occasion 
to study Washington and his civil life because, in the 
course of the public demands made upon him, he must 
speak about him. Here, too, was a great personal as 
well as a public attraction. He had a deeper admiration 



GROVER CLEVELAND 287 

for the first in the Hne of his predecessors than for any 
other man in history. In hke manner, he was led to the 
study of Hamilton, although he never made an address 
devoted to his character and services. To Jefferson he 
gave close attention for patriotic as well as partizan 
reasons. He was frequently called upon to make ad- 
dresses about our third President, and he also wrote a 
short introduction to his works — still unpublished, be- 
cause he deemed it inadequate. 

One of the first demands which I was called upon to 
meet, in my capacity as book-hunter, was to find for him 
Madison's "Debates of the Constitutional Convention," 
of which he made a careful study. As coming nearer to 
our own times and meeting conditions more nearly mod- 
ern — so far as fiscal questions were concerned — he was 
drawn to the actions, more than to the writings, of Jack- 
son. He returned continually to these statesmen, so that 
the opening of his second administration found him one 
of the best equipped of our public men in knowledge of 
the real fundamentals of political life. 



Ill 

It was not alone, however, to a study of the works of 
these men that this increased knowledge was due. He 
was continually coming into the closest touch with liv- 
ing men who had fairly mastered the facts and theories 
of financial discussion. Everything that was best of 
current thought, so far as men were concerned, came 
to him. The leading economists, specialists in their 
branches of study, were constantly seeking him out, or 
sending him their contributions, or reaching him. no less 
effectively, through his personal or political intimates. 



288 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

While in this, as in other questions, he absorbed infor- 
mation slowly, it found sure lodgment in his capacious 
mind. He seldom interrupted his chosen studies by 
attention to extraneous questions. He found little time, 
during this period, for poetry, or fiction, or even the- 
ology — for which he had both an inherited and a culti- 
vated fondness. His lines had been cast for him, and he 
followed them with a fidelity seldom seen. 

It was always interesting to see how, without con- 
scious efifort, he was drawn to the men who had done 
good service in the maintenance of the gold standard, or 
of the public credit, and to note his opposition to those 
who, at any time, had surrendered to the financial delu- 
sions of the day. Party differences did not enter into 
account in these attractions and repulsions. Whether 
Democrats or Republicans , he equally admired those of 
the one type and distrusted those of the other. 

He w^as perhaps attracted to Mr. Tilden more by rea- 
son of his financial opinions and record than for any 
other cause, because he was rather repelled than at- 
tracted by some of the associations of this great leader ; 
but he always admired his consistent and intelligent de- 
votion to sound principles on the problems which 
absorbed so much of his thought and inspired so many 
of his acts. He used to say that the one great loss for 
w^hich the country had had to pay most dearly in the 
failure to inaugurate Mr. Tilden was the long time it 
took to enforce his sound ideas on fiscal questions. He 
believed that the strength and courage inherent in Mr. 
Tilden's character, united with his knowledge, would 
have averted the original silver legislation, and made it 
possible, as the result of large discussion and of wise, 
far-seeing measures, virtually to eradicate the greenback 
or fiat-money heresy, so that our whole financial policy 




SAMlhl. J. TIl.DliN 
Governor of New York. 1875-1876 



GROVER CLEVELAND 289 

would hot have been dictated hv a series of successful 
appeals to ignorant clamor and to the most dan.c^erous 
opportunism. In spite of this failure of justice, with its 
logical consequences, Mr. Cleveland emphasized his 
opinion that it was due to the teachings of Mr. Tildcn 
that these dangerous tendencies had finally been checked 
and the country put into the way of recovery from dan 
gerous diseases. 

When he came into public life himself, Mr. Cleveland 
was naturally drawn to the men who had done their full 
share of this sound educational and practical work on a 
vital question. Perhaps the one man whom he most 
esteemed in this respect was the late Joseph K. McDon- 
ald, who, in the early days of the first Presidential term, 
was still Senator from Indiana. Here were two men 
who, though meeting as strangers, had no difficulty in 
understanding each other. 

When most of the influential public men in tlie West, 
and especially those in Indiana — with the exception of 
Benjamin Harrison — had bowed down to the false gods 
of inflation and free silver, Mr. McDonald had never 
wavered for a moment. If there was anywhere in the 
land, in either party or in no party, a band of men de- 
voted to sound finance, Joseph E. McDonald could 
always be counted with them. He would sacrifice a 
senatorship, or take one against his own interest and 
inclination, or make a hopeless run for Governor of his 
State, or put himself into any other place, if only ho 
could do something to carry out his ideas. He would 
oppose any man, whatever his party, his alignment, or 
his position, or support another, if his opposition, in the 
one case, or his aid, in the other, would promote what 
he believed to be right. When, by association. Mr. 
Cleveland had learned all this, he insisted that, little as 

19 



290 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

the forgetful public recognized it, the victory for sound 
methods in the West was due more to the Indiana states- 
man than to all the other men of his section together. 



IV 

Never distinguished for forming close relations with 
his associates on the three Presidential tickets of which 
he was the head, Mr. Cleveland resented Mr. Hen- 
dricks's former compliant or compromising attitude 
towards financial heresies more than anything else in 
his record, and was, I am sure, more apprehensive in 
1884 of attack upon the ticket for this delinquency than 
at any other point. While there was little opportunity, 
owing to Mr. Hendricks's death so early in the adminis- 
tration, for the formation of personal intimacies, I have 
strong doubts, resulting from my close association with 
both of them, whether or not anything more than the 
most formal or official relations would have been pos- 
sible. And this failure would have been due to a natural 
antagonism on these important questions, which, with 
Mr. Cleveland, were vital, while, with Mr. Hendricks, 
no less convinced in principle of their soundness as he 
was, they were subject to compromise. 

Personally fond of Allen G. Thurman, Mr. Cleveland 
could not understand or quite forgive the evasion shown 
in the celebrated Wooster speech, and he often expressed 
the belief that it was this which, with all his ability, his 
long service, and his general attachment to the prin- 
ciples of his party, had rendered it impossible for him to 
command either nomination or election as President. 

I have referred elsewhere to the foresight shown by 
Mr. Cleveland in overcoming any weakness that might 



GROVER CLEVELAND 291 

have developed in the caiiipaij2:n of 1892 as tlie result 
of Mr. Stevenson's record on financial (|ucsti()ns in the 
then remote days of the i^rccnhack aj^^itation. Person- 
ally, he had an unusual fondness for his associate on tlic 
ticket of 1892, but this did not deter him for a moment 
from taking prompt steps to overcome an apprehended 
weakness on this question. 

In like manner, through the first administration, so 
far as its official side is concerned, the men who entered 
into such intimate personal relations as to become friends 
were Air. Bayard, Secretary of State, Mr. Lamar, Sec- 
retary of the Interior, Mr. Fairchild, his second Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, and Mr. Vilas, Postmaster-Gen- 
eral, who had never wavered in their attachment to 
sound, conservative financial ideas. All of these had 
sacrificed ambition or popularity as the result of their 
attachment to principle. So, all along down the line of 
partizan or political activity or interest, the men who 
had proved themselves faithful to their self-assumed 
trusts were able to command from the President the con- 
fidence and favor, not of patronage, but tliose belonging 
to advisers and friends. 



It was not alone to the members of his own party that 
these observations applied. In referring to some party 
opponent— even one who had fought him most valiantly 
and persistently— he would often say: ''But we must 
not forget his services to the cause of honest money." 
Antipathetic as the two men were. Mr. Cleveland would 
say this, time after time, when the late Senator Hoar's 
name would come up iov discussion. Drawn by many 



292 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

qualities to George F. Edmunds — even when referring 
to their contest over the powers lodged in the Senate 
and the executive respectively — he would continually 
emphasize the firm attitude of the Vermont Senator 
towards the Specie Resumption Act and his unyielding 
opposition to inflation and free coinage. 

Perhaps the most conspicuous case of this was his 
judgment of the late John Sherman. He could never 
express too positively his opinion of the obligation of 
the country to the then Senator from Ohio. He once 
said to me, in about 1890, when the silver agitation was 
at its hottest — perhaps when the silver-purchase bill was 
under discussion: 

No man now in public life, certainly no Republi- 
can, has rendered a greater service to sound finance 
than John Sherman. Starting out wrong from every 
logical or safe point of view, embracing and defend- 
ing the worst heresies of the greenback agitation, 
surrendering to the supposed sentiment of the West 
and of his State, the time came when, by a careful 
study of the question in all its relations, he discov- 
ered that he had been misled. He did not hesitate, 
and so was not afraid to be called inconsistent. He 
deliberately set himself to undo the damage he had 
done, although in taking this step he did not, with the 
usual zeal of the convert, impugn the motives of 
those with whom he had been associated in belief and 
action, but went so thoroughly into the question that 
he could meet all their contentions with arguments 
based upon history and experience. He was, there- 
fore, enabled to exercise an influence perhaps all the 
greater because of his former activity on the other 
side. 



GROVER CLEVKLAXl^ 293 

At this time and always Mr. Cleveland insisted that 
the so-called Sherman Law did not represent Mr. Sher- 
man's opinions. He himself was destined to wipe it 
off the statute-books, by the' aid of the Senator's vote, 
at the special session of Congress held early in his second 
term. When I saw him more than three years later, he 
said: "I always told you that John Sherman c^ave noth- 
ing but his name to the silver bill repealed in 1893. You 
see that I was right." 



VI 

So it was throughout Mr. Cleveland's public life. Nomi- 
nally, the chosen official representative of a party, and 
that, too, one in which each individual deemed it both a 
duty and a right to set up for himself, he was always at- 
tracted to and by the men who believed with him on these 
deep, underlying questions. It was not only that his own 
success was based upon devotion to these ideas, but that 
this attitude was the distinct cause of his success, which, 
in its turn, was, according to his conception of duty, to be 
turned to practical use in the greatest political movement 
carried through during his lifetime. Whatever may 
belong to him : honesty, earnestness, love for law and its 
limitations and for discipline — and his attachment in 
these w^as very deep— his final and greatest claim to fame 
must be the commanding services rendered to a stable 
standard of value and a sound currency system. The 
latter is not yet accomplished, but it will come, and when 
it does, much of the credit for it will belong to Grover 
Cleveland. 



294 RECOLLECTIONS OF 



VII 

In the earlier stages of his public career, as in his life 
before entering politics, Mr. Cleveland had little oppor- 
tunity to study our system of general taxation. In his 
later days, he used to think and talk a good deal about 
it and lament the difficulties so apparent in our compli- 
cated political life. While his training, ideas, and in- 
stinct were strongly opposed to centralization, he was 
inclined to the belief that a far greater degree of it than 
we had ever seen, or even deemed possible, was certain 
to come, not from aggression on the part of some mythi- 
cal man on horseback, or because such a concentration 
of power was likely to be a necessity for the preservation 
of order, but for the far stronger reason that our taxing 
system was now divided into three parts. Federal, State, 
and local, and that, more and more, they tended to clash 
with each other. He was of opinion that, in course of 
time, the danger of double or treble, and thus of unjust 
and inequitable, taxation would be one of the incidents 
of our system. 

It is known that he was inclined to favor the laying of 
an income tax, in the fear that, otherwise, certain forms 
of property might escape their share of taxation, but 
said he had not considered deeply the claim that this 
form of tax is, in its practical workings, a burden on 
capital and thus a discouragement to thrift, rather than 
a levy upon income, as it purports to be. He signed the 
Income Tax Law of 1894, less because of his acceptance 
of the principle underlying it, than from a willingness 
and desire to have the question finally settled by the Su- 
preme Court of the United States. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 295 

VIII 

To him, the question most vital, so far as the incidents 
of taxation were concerned, was the tendency, under our 
system of divided authority, to increase exjicnditures 
and debts beyond the Hmits of safety either to economic 
development or to public honesty, for, in his mind, a tax 
that was unnecessary was unjust, no matter liow or by 
whom levied. As all wealth was earned by tiie indus- 
try of the individual, and government was only a pr)lice 
agency, it exceeded its powers and impaired public 
morals when it raised more than was absolutely neces- 
sary for carrying on its functions. 

He often expressed the opinion that, as all our previ- 
ous contests for the establishment of liberty had re- 
volved around the levy of taxes, it was probable that the 
maintenance of this liberty in the future would take the 
form of questioning or limiting expenditures, and that, 
in order properly to assert this right, the whole question 
of taxation ought to be taken up, freed from partizan- 
ship, as well as from local prejudice or interest, and set- 
tled on the largest lines. 

IX 

Government by Commission. One of the interesting 
developments which I was privileged to see during my 
association with Mr. Cleveland was his relation to the 
Interstate Commerce Law, the appointment of the Com- 
mission, the workings of the resulting system, and the 
impressions made by the changes he liad seen in i)ublic 
sentiment about railroads. 

The demand for a Federal law regulating railroads 
had been increasing for many years; but the time was 



296 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

not ripe for final action until the second year of his first 
administration, when, after a prolonged discussion of a 
high order in both Houses, the law was passed. All the 
elements and forces had been so thoroughly considered, 
that, when the principle had once been asserted, the 
whole question came before the President in a concrete 
form, and he was compelled to reach a conclusion upon it. 



As early in our acquaintance as the year after his first 
term, he began to express freely his opinion of the law 
and its workings. In many conversations, he explained 
the principle upon which he himself had acted. He 
averred that never in his public life had he felt more 
keenly the sense of responsibility cast upon him than 
when the bill enacting this law came before him for con- 
sideration in 1886. He entertained many doubts, not 
only about its practical workings, but of its constitu- 
tionality, apprehending that it might interfere with the 
rights and powers of the States, to which regulation had 
been limited. His professional work had made him so 
familiar with the practical operation of railroads that 
he realized, from the beginning and to the fullest extent, 
the tendency of commissions, whether Federal or State, 
to get away from regulation — always avowed as their 
sole purpose — into dictation, and thence into what he 
feared would be their logic, operation. In spite of these 
drawbacks, he felt that there were abuses and grievances 
which demanded correction, if they could be so reached 
that the remedy would not be worse than the disease. 

"After a careful study of the question," he often re- 
peated, "and in spite of reservations, I signed the bill. It 
was my intention to file a memorandum setting forth 



GROVER CLEVELAND 297 

my doubts on constitutional points, and explaining my 
conception of its limitations. Upon further considera- 
tion it seemed best to assume responsibility and then to 
see that the new system started under the most favorable 
auspices." As he thought that the Commission should 
be essentially a judicial body, it was essential to find a 
chairman who would commend himself to the whole 
country. After canvassing the situation with great care, 
Judge Thomas M. Cooley of Michigan, who was in the 
prime of his powers and everywhere recognized not onlv 
as a wise judge but as a fair man, was chosen. He had 
the additional merit that he was conspicuously fitted for 
the post by reason of his knowledge of the questions 
entering into railroad construction and management. 



XI 

To the President's mind it was also vital that the Com- 
mission should be non-partizan, and that the chairman 
and his associates should be at once the most efficient 
and judicial-minded men whose services he could com- 
mand in such a work. He feared that it might be im- 
possible to induce Judge Cooley to accept, and he was 
relieved when he found that his doubts were not justi- 
fied. He then left the Commission free to inaugurate 
the system as it might seem best, refusing to interfere 
with its organization or management. 

"As a result of this caution," he said, in sul)stance, 
many times, "but mainly because the organization of the 
Commission satisfied the public, it started well. Rules 
were instituted on safe and conservative lines. An earn- 
est and successful efifort was made to discover the rela- 
tion of law to railroads and of railroads to law. whether 
new or old. Its powers were used with a prudence that 



298 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

augured well for the future. It did not clash with the 
powers of the States; it was not partizan, either in or- 
ganization or direction; and did not meddle or assert 
authority not comprehended in its enactment or incon- 
sistent with the theory and workings of our institutions. 
It did not check enterprise or initiative, nor was it used 
by one interest against another." 



XII 

During the Presidential interim, Mr. Cleveland watched 
with interest the workings of the Commission and the 
principle of Federal regulation. He feared there was 
a strong tendency to assert an authority neither in- 
tended nor, in his view, wholesome, and, as vacancies 
occurred, he thought he saw a drift, perhaps uncon- 
scious, towards partizanship in the personnel of the 
body; more than all, he feared that, with a decline in 
character, the body might fall into the hands of men who 
could be used by an ambitious President or by the rail- 
road interests themselves. 

In his second term, so 'far as in his power, he pursued 
the original policy. Here, however, as in many other 
matters, the preservation of the public credit so absorbed 
his attention that he could not devote to details that at- 
tention which had so distinguished him from 1885 to 
1889. He invoked only the powers granted by the inter- 
state commerce clause of the Constitution in order to 
put down threatened insurrection in Colorado and open 
violence in Chicago, still refusing to enter upon a policy 
of interference or anything which looked, even in a re- 
mote degree, to regulation beyond the watching or su- 
pervisory stage. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 299 



XIII 



He always felt that the moment politicians or desicrninp: 
men were able to use the powers of government for llieir 
own purposes the country was inviting serious perils. 
To his mind it was very easy to do this under the plea 
that there is a popular demand for it, and he often ex- 
pressed the opinion that more harm had i)rohal)ly hccn 
done to society by men who have posed as "friends of 
the people" than even that which nuist be laid to avowed 
tyrants. This was especially the case, in his view, when 
executive authority was lodged in the hands of commis- 
sions, so far removed from popular power that their 
authority might be exercised at elections and through 
other methods of forming or influencing imblic opin 
ion. The trend towards government by commission wns 
a policy which he deplored and opposed— a fact which 
entered more into account than any other one element in 
his original fears about the Interstate Commerce Law. 

From the opening days of his public career, he had 
emphasized the existence of abuses by combinations of 
capital as well as by combinations of labor; but he dis- 
trusted outside bodies, without direct responsn)ility to 
the people, because they afforded new opportunities for 
serving the purposes of ambitious executives who might 
thereby be able to work their will in nominations and 
elections and thus perpetuate their own power or that of 
their parties. 

He did not believe it was ever intended that govern- 
ment should continually interfere with business. He 
ridiculed the fear of the traditional man on horseback, 
but was apprehensive lest the use by independent bodies 
of the authority of the executive, whether in nation or 



300 GROVER CLEVELAND 

State, should enable them to concentrate into their hands 
the great enterprises of the country. To him, it was a 
serious thing that the high tariff system had been fixed 
upon our people — apparently with little hope of effective 
relief — and if to this wqvq added oversight and control 
by government of economic forces entering into pro- 
duction, exchange, and transportation, the resulting 
perils would tax to the utmost our patriotism, morality, 
and power of resistance. 



CHAPTER XIX 

WHAT A CLOSED ROOM REVEALED 



WHEN the first Presidential term ended and Mr. 
Cleveland went to New York to live, he took 
the house, No. 8i6 Madison Avenue, into 
which the family moved somewhat hurriedly. In doing 
this, the miscellaneous accumulations of four years in the 
Executive Mansion at Washington were deposited, pell- 
mell, in a large upper room, which was carefully locked 
against the time when an opportunity should present it- 
self for going over its contents, no clear knowledge of 
them existing except that they were of the most varied 
character. 

When, owing to the expiration of the lease, it hecame 
necessary, in 1892, to prepare for removal to another 
house, one of the things to be done was to clear this 
room. This process was dreaded and put off as long as 
possible, but when there was no chance for further delay 
I was asked to assist in the task. The family— and all 
the servants except the butler— were absent, and so Mr. 
Cleveland and I, beginning on the Monday before 
Easter, determined to give that week to the matter in 
hand. We began early, and as there were no union 
rules to regulate the hours of labor in the fastnesses ot 
Madison Avenue, the work went on uiuil a late hour. 

301 



302 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

At noon we would sally forth for luncheon in a little out- 
of-the-way restaurant over on Third Avenue, giving to 
this as little time as possible, because there lay behind 
us work that was so urgent that it could not be neglected 
or put off. 



II 

Upon unlocking the disused room into which had been 
thrown thousands of miscellaneous articles — the accu- 
mulations of all the years of active public life — drawn 
from every quarter under the sun, there was revealed the 
most surprising variety. Among them were gifts of a 
semi-public character, souvenirs of every variety and 
order — many of them articles voted to the most popular 
candidate for President at social, church, or charitable 
fairs. These included everything that human ingenuity 
could devise. The gold-headed canes, of which there were 
more than a dozen, were — after a few with personal or 
friendly associations had been put aside — sent as pres- 
ents to personal friends, my own share being one from 
a Masonic festival or like occasion in Kentucky. 

Then there were theatrical programs ; menus of ban- 
quets eaten long ago, but in which the President had had 
no part; music dedicated or sent to him, but probably 
never played or playable by anybody ; out-of-the-way ob- 
jects which had been sent either for sale or for begging 
purposes ; tickets and articles from every order of chari- 
table undertaking or venture ; itineraries or schemes for 
entertainment during his tour of the country; photo- 
graphs of scenery or events; and albums, plush boxes, 
portfolios, and like objects of great number and variety, 
all of which passed under our eyes and were disposed 
of according to the necessities of a private citizen who 



GROVER CLEVELAND 303 

expected to live in an ordinary AnicM-ican house. Some 
sufficiently valuable were sent to friends, and if hy 
chance one was found with a sentimental relation to 
some one Mr. Cleveland knew, a place was made for it in 
the house. 



Ill 

Having dealt thus carefully with the objects furthest 
from personal interest, we came to the confidential corrc 
spondence and private papers, both in great variety. Of 
the former, much of it of historical value, it was impos- 
sible to rescue from destruction any considerable pn> 
portion, although several letters from Cabinet officers 
were handed over to me for the time of need, and have 
been of distinct use in preparing- these memoirs, not only 
in themselves, but by revealing the close relations which 
Mr. Cleveland held with official associates. There were 
letters from Mr. Bayard, Mr. Whitney, Mr. X'ilas. Mr. 
Lamar, and Mr. Garland, and I have printed some <>f 
these because they furnish estimates of my subject nnt 
otherwise obtainable. 

Generally speaking, Mr. Cleveland, full of sentiment 
as he was, did not permit it to operate where he was him- 
self involved. For instance, nothing in his own hand- 
writing seemed to have any interest for him, nor could 
he understand why it should have for anybody else. He 
consented, however, to let me keep, as a souvenir, the 
perfected draft, in his handwriting, of his annual me< 
sage to Congress in 1888, but scores of others, which 
ought to have gone to libraries and collections, where 
they would have found both use and esteem, were ruth- 
lessly destroyed in spite of the pathetic pleadings of his 
fellow-worker. 



304 RECOLLECTIONS OF 



IV 

One of the most interesting revelations of the house- 
clearing process was a document which illustrated not 
only a phase of history but Mr. Cleveland's way of deal- 
ing with public concerns. During the first administra- 
tion, a question had been raised by the relations which 
Mr. Garland, the Attorney-General, had held, before 
appointment, to the telephone patents. The newspapers 
had been filled with it for a time, and, although it proved 
a mare's nest, the opinion was once prevalent in news- 
paper circles that it contained at least the potentialities 
of a real political scandal. When it came up in the Cabi- 
net, the conclusion was reached that some official expla- 
nation should be made by Mr. Garland, and it was 
agreed that he should prepare a statement, in the form 
of a letter to the President, to be made public as an 
authorized defense on the part of the administration. 

This was done, and we unearthed, in the long-locked 
room, the original of this document in the handwriting 
of the Attorney-General. But, as was not unusual with 
Mr. Cleveland, he was not satisfied either with the form 
or the arguments of the suggested letter. Docketed 
with it was another draft of the proposed state- 
ment. This, like the other, was elaborate— each filled 
from twelve to twenty pages of foolscap — and was in 
the form of a letter from the Attorney-General ad- 
dressed, in one case as in the other, to the President. It 
was in Mr. Cleveland's handwriting, and, even then, was 
not one of his easily recognized rough drafts, but a fair 
copy. He had taken up the case in all details, studied 
them with the same care that he would have given to a 
law case under his own control, and had then written 
and addressed to himself the letter which, in other cir- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 305 

cumstances, he would have submitted to a chciit in the 
form of an opinion. 

Neither statement was used, and the only copies were 
destroyed: but the incident showed his way of transact- 
ing business and furnished a further explanation of the 
reflected hand, described in an early chapter, which 
wrote faithfully far into the morning. 



Another interesting document unearthed from this 
room was a letter from Joseph Malietoa, King of the 
Samoan Islands, the relations with which had marked 
our original venture into colonial government, and also 
gave some unusual duties to our Alinisters to England 
and Germany, with whom we had then a limited partner- 
ship. The* King had already made fervid appeals to the 
Department of State, no doubt with small encourage- 
ment. He therefore wrote directly to the President, a 
pathetic appeal for war-ships, of which the following is 
the official translation : 

^ Tx- T- ,1 Apia, 24 December. 1888. 

To His Excellency 

Grover Cleveland, 

President of the United* States of- America. 

Your Excellency: 

I have the honor to inform you that in the last month I 
wrote a letter to Your Excellency, praying that you with the 
United States Government would look with compassion on me 
and the people of this small group of Islands, and devise 
some plan of mercy that would free us from the hard and 
cruel rule of the German Consul and Captains of Gentian 
Men-of-War. 

And now^ I have again to cry to Your Excellency and the 
United States Government and pray you to help us. For on 
the 1 8th of this month the Germans raised war against me in 

20 



3o6 GROVER CLEVELAND 

the early morning, before it was daybreak. Many, seeing 
the force approaching, thought they were the war party of 
Tamasese, but, as dayhght became stronger, we saw that they 
were German men-of-war's men, and we stopped the fight, 
as we never intended to show fight to the Germans from the 
beginning up to the present day. What brought about this 
fight with the Germans was from the cruel and heartless con- 
duct of the German Consul by trying to put Samoa and the 
Samoans under the rule and control of the German Trader 
(D. H. & P. Gesellschaft) in Samoa. Your Excellency and 
the Government of the United States, have love for us and 
extricate me and Samoa from the anger of the Germans, now 
and for the future. 

Oh that you would send men-of-war here with a favorable 
decision and with strength in order that we might be pro- 
tected ! Please entertain the desire sent to Your Excellency 
and the United States Government in the past month ; and 
this also, and may the United States Government entertain 
it, then we under the rule will find peace, 
t May you live! 

JOSEFO I. MaLIETOA, 

King of Samoa. 



VI 

Taken as a whole, the five days' continuous work, end- 
ing with Good Friday, 1892— upon the accumulations in 
the semi-private collections of a Governor of New York 
and President of the United States— held in it much 
of personal interest for the two persons engaged in the 
task, and revealed even more human nature, in both 
President and people, than is often brought to light 
within a like period of time. That was certainly a unique 
experience which enabled one thus to review at first 
hand, with the principal actor in it, one of the most ex- 
citing periods in our history. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE SOUTH 



A FTER the great responsibility of taking up the Gov- 
/ \ ernment itself, the question that most interested 
X jL Mr. Cleveland, when he came to the Presidency 
in 1885, was the treatment of the South. For the first 
time since the Civil War, power was to be lodged in a 
man who had taken no active part in it either on the civil 
or the military side. In the twenty years that had i)assed 
since the conflict was over, a new generation had grown 
up. While he had not been active in national politics, the 
new President soon showed that he was not ignorant of 
the conditions then existing in the South, nor of the 
crisis through which it had passed as the result of con- 
trol by aliens, whether in the form of strangers or of the 
race recently emancipated. 

He had no knowledge of that portion of the country 
from personal experience: he had never been further 
South than Washington, and his associates had not been 
drawn from among the men of that section. But lie 
knew not only that here was to be found the problem the 
solution of which was most vital to the success of his 
work, but that therein lay his first duty. Rven before 
he began the tedious and difficult work of choosing his 
Cabinet, he had turned his attention to this cpiestion; his 

307 



3o8 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

anxiety over it was very great, and he soon showed that 
he knew how to begin right. Always strongly averse to 
receiving formal delegations for any purpose, he in- 
augurated the policy, always maintained, of sending for 
the men best fitted to give him information, and whose 
claims he had under consideration for places in his Cab- 
inet. 



II 

In the first administration he made no tender of appoint- 
ment to such positions without the most detailed inter- 
views with the men themselves. No reputation, howeveV 
great, could induce him, then, to run the risk, either for 
himself or the statesmen most concerned, of making a 
mistake. No diplomat, whatever his nature or training, 
could have given closer attention to the etiquette of his 
position than did this man who had been called out of 
inexperience and obscurity to exalted position. 

As each man came, whether with the idea of the ten- 
der of a Cabinet position, or merely for advice, this ques- 
tion of the attitude of Mr. Cleveland's administration 
towards the South was the matter most often under dis- 
cussion. It was important, not only because of the ne- 
cessity for just treatment and due recognition of that 
section, but for the more vital necessity of discovering 
what was likely to be the attitude of its people towards 
the changed conditions with which they were to be con- 
fronted. Would they insist merely upon the pound of 
political flesh to which they might deem themselves en- 
titled by reason of their contributions to party success? 
Would they use their unquestioned power in the councils 
of the victorious party for revenge, or for a patriotic 
rebuilding on safe and sure lines? 



GROVER CLEVELAND 309 

The answer to these questions depended upon the class 
of men who should be put to the front. If the old-fash- 
ioned fire-eater should be preferred, the i)arti/an st-nti 
ment of the North could be appealed lo with sucli force 
that the new regime would be discredited before it 
was wtII under way. If men of good character but of 
independent standing in the country were not chosen 
for high places, all the chances for striking results would 
be sacrificed. 

Neither policy came up for consideration, as the new 
President took the bold step of drawing Messrs. Bayard, 
Garland, and Lamar from the United States Senate for 
Cabinet advisers. They had long exj)erience in public 
life, and unquestioned character and ability. They had 
conquered the respect of the whole country by these 
qualities and by the exhibition of courage and patriotism 
in trying times. No man of equal prominence or politi- 
cal standing to any one of these was taken from the 
North. It would not have been possible to find such 
men, and yet the charge of undue influence could not be 
laid against the South, nor, outside the lowest partizan 
quarters, was this ever alleged. Once more, the dis- 
tinctions of section, so long potent, had been demolished, 
never again to be established on the old lines. 



in 

With such advisers from the South, there was little 
danger that any serious mistakes would be made in the 
distribution of Federal patronage. Everywhere an ef- 
fort was made to maintain the policy already inaugu- 
rated and thus to command the services of men whose 
selection would reflect credit upon themselves and the 



3IO ^RECOLLECTIONS OF 

country. Soon this people, who had been treated hith- 
erto as outlaws, began to regain their own pride and to 
feel that at last, after many tribulations, they were 
really in the Union and an integral part of it. 

In later life, Mr. Cleveland often referred to those 
trying days. Nobody could realize more than he the 
risk he ran in taking out of the Senate three men so well 
established there as leaders of the minority and thor- 
oughly in the confidence of the country. But two of 
them were at once replaced by successors to whom, from 
the beginning, he gave his full confidence. With one of 
them, George Gray of Delaware, he formed a close 
friendship which only ended with his life. As the result 
of this good fortune the administration commanded the 
services of its own trusted members and maintained its 
influence in the Senate, where it most needed support. 

For a time everything went well. The people of the 
South, well satisfied with a return to their old traditions, 
under which the best men among them were preferred 
for place and power, made no unusual demands, showing 
a modesty and reserve which struck the imagination of 
the country. The election of John G. Carlisle as Speaker 
of the House had strengthened the situation, the attitude 
of governors and legislatures had been much influenced 
by the dignity and vigor of the national administration, 
and it began to look as if the promise for the future of 
the country lay with the South. 



IV 

But as the danger of Federal interference disappeared, 
as the memory of former wrongs and grievances became 
dim, and especially as the older conservative figures dis- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 311 

appeared from political life, their successors hQr^:\n to 
partake of that demoralization which, even then, had 
clone so much of its work in the North. Wild schemes 
in which Populism was confused with Democracy he^an 
to appear. Demagogues were able to command gov- 
ernorships and began to creep into the LTnited States 
Senate. The old and staid newspapers which had main 
tained themselves and their traditions began to change 
their character, and, in many cases, to disappear. The 
existence of great and undeveloped natural resources 
w^as so recognized that, as elsewhere, the strong men 
found their way into the management of railroads or 
local corporations, or they became residents of the 
North, where opportunities promised to be better. 

As these new political conditions appeared, their ex- 
ponents began to press for recognition in the distribution 
of Federal patronage. The conservative holders of these 
public offices soon found themselves the centre of an 
opposition wdiich, with its increase in Senators and 
members of Congress, reflected itself in the attitude 
towards the administration. The old human problem of 
benefits forgot began to press for solution, and the 
South, as an integral part of the L"^nion, came to share in 
unfavorable as w^ell as in favorable conditions and ten- 
dencies. 

No man saw this quicker than the then President of 
the United States, wdthin whose period of service, and 
to some extent from his w^ell-meant policies, it had come. 
The recrudescence of financial ideas, at once discredited 
and dangerous, alarmed him, less for the future of his 
party than for the delay of a prosperity which, founded 
upon sound ideas, should give a promise of stability and 
permanence. Mr. Cleveland's defeat in i«^88 gave these 
reactionary forces renewed encouragement, and, for a 



312 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

time, Southern politics took again an introspective turn, 
so that the interests of the whole country tended to give 
way to local necessities, while demagogues and agita- 
tors, who had generally found short shrift in the South, 
came to the front in increasing numbers. In the pre- 
nomination campaign of 1892, it was only the swing of 
the country, and this return to active work of many 
friends formed during the first administration, that kept 
a good many of these States in line. 

In illustration of Mr. Cleveland's sentiment towards 
the South, an incident which occurred during his second 
administration in respect to the selection of Colonel 
Hilary A. Herbert of Alabama, as Secretary of the 
Navy, is a case in point. Six months after the relation 
had been formed, he said to the new Secretary: 

I want to tell you now that I hesitated for a time 
whether to appoint you. You know, of course, that 
I never had any difficulty in appointing ex-Confed- 
erates to office, but it did seem to me doubtful, for a 
time, whether I could afford to put an ex-Confeder- 
ate officer in charge of the military branch of the 
navy, where he would actually command those who 
had fought against him. I now see that the country 
is satisfied with you, and that I made no mistake 
in appointing you. 



With the 4th of March, 1893, and the rumblings of that 
terrible, preordained, and invited panic, and its resulting 
depression, all the unfavorable signs were multiplied, so 
that the South, for which Mr. Cleveland had done so 
much and felt so keenly, really added itself to his prob- 




IIILAK^ A. lIUKlil.Kl Ul Al.AllA.MA 
Secretary ol the NJvy. Match, 1893-1897 



GROVER CLEVELAND 7,11, 

lems. As if it were the opening of a volcano char^'cfl 
with every sort of peril, Congress, largely under the 
control of Southern men, with the weakest Sj)caker of 
the House seen in that body since the days before the 
Civil War, with all principle thrown to the winds, ob- 
livious to all warnings, had, with the greatest difficulty, 
been forced, in spite of Southern Democratic oppo- 
sition, and only by reason of Northern Republican sup- 
port, to repeal the Sherman Silver Purchase Law. 

On April 17, 1894, only a year after the new adminis- 
tration had come into power, in the course of a letter 
written to me, in England, Mr. Thomas F. Ryan, then 
just gaining for himself the reputation of a captain of 
industry, long after he had established this character 
with his friends, said: 

As to politics, you doubtless keep well posted. Our party 
is in a deplorable condition, one from which I see no present 
hope of escape. The South is in the saddle, and but for Mr. 
Cleveland, there is no knowing where they would lead us. 
The political ambition of men to whom Mr. Cleveland and the 
country had a right to look for wise counsel and support has 
led them to barter principle for hope of office. .Xs it stands 
to-day, the Democratic party cannot be trusted with the Gov- 
ernment, 

Then began in the South a period of calunmy and an 
opposition to everything for which Mr. Cleveland stood, 
almost without parallel in the history of our party poli- 
tics; so that, when his second administration came to an 
end in 1897, he was, as he afterwards insisted, the most 
unpopular man whose name could be mentioned there. 
Nothing in all his public life gave him so much grief. 
He knew how deeply interested he had been, what 
thought he had given to this momentous question, with 
what honesty he had inet every issue as it arose, what 



314 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

risk and pains he had taken, his honest determination to 
restore the Union in reahty and in truth, his recognition 
of its best men and his warm personal friendship for 
them, and then to have this as his reward! This con- 
tributed so to increase the feehng of sadness which dis- 
tinguished his later days that neither the consolations of 
friends nor the conviction that 'he had rendered good 
service to the country could wholly dispel it. 



VI 

His feeling on this question is accurately represented by 
the following letters, written, at two-year intervals, to 
his valued friend and supporter, Kope Elias of North 
Carolina : 

Gray Gables, 
Buzzards Bay, Mass., 

June 20, 1895. 
My dear Sir: 

I have read with very great interest and satisfaction the 
clippings you sent me from the Charlotte Observer. Such 
able presentations of the arguments against the dangerous 
and delusive notion of free and unlimited silver coinage can- 
not fail to arrest the attention of men as intelligent as those 
making up the population of North Carolina. I look upon 
those vho take such an active and earnest part as the editor 
of the Observer in clearing away the fallacies and correcting 
the misapprehensions so prevalent just at this time and 
circling about the subject of our currency, as true patriots, 
who will in due time see with pride and satisfaction the 
happiest results from their patriotic labors. The American 
people are still sensible and honest and cannot be misled to 

their undoing. ,;r ^ 1 

^ Yours truly, 

GLOVER Cleveland. 
Hon. Kope Elias. 



GROVER CLJlVRLAND 315 

Clray C'lahlcs, 
Buzzards Bay, Mass.. 

August I, 1X97. 
Dear Sir: 

I desire to acknowledpfe your recent friendly letter and 
thank you for it. You say the "advance agent of prosperity 
has not struck the South." It seems to me that the people of 
that locality are doing all they can to har the gates to that 
desirable visitor, as long as they persist in attacking every 
safeguard of enterprise and business activity. Help may 
come to the South in spite of false and dangerous theories, 
but I believe a short and safe road to its prosperity will be 
found in a return to the solid ground of tried and true 

Democracy. ,r , , 

■^ Yours very truly. 

Grover Cleveland. 

Hon. Kope Elias. 

When the Presidential election of 1896 approached, a 
series of reports found currency, mainly in two or three 
papers of the South, that Mr. Cleveland was himself 
scheming- for a third election. They were so wholly de- 
void of truth that he could not deny them ; but that he 
resented them bitterly was well shown by his reference 
to them, for the third or fourth time, at my last meeting 
with him : 

Any man wath even the smallest knowledge of tli<> 
conditions which surrounded my second administra 
tion knows that I could not have commanded the 
support of half a dozen delegates in the whole coun- 
try. The ])ersistenl misre])rescntali(»ns of ])crsonal 
enemies, the falsehood and j)artizan denunciations 
published in the Republican j)ress. betrayal by the 
advocates of free silver, and resistance to the decla- 
ration of war wath Spain, had combined to make my 



3i6 GROVER CLEVELAND 

administration one of the most unpopular in our 
history. 

He averred that every man intelligent enough to have 
an opinion knew perfectly well that retirement w^as for 
him a necessity of health and life as well as of peace of 
mind, to say nothing of principle and inflexible deter- 
mination. 



VII 

About the year 1904, when the hopes which had cen- 
tred in this opposition to sound policies had been dis- 
credited, along with its advocates, the tide of thought in 
the South began to turn. Never much concerned about 
the state of public opinion so far as he was personally 
involved, he did watch this change with an interest I 
never before knew him to manifest. Newspapers, with 
kindly notices marked for his attention, began to reach 
him again, and the immense tide of letters, which had 
ceased for a time, flowed anew. He soon discovered that 
his old popularity was coming back, that there did exist, 
after all, some feeling of attachment for the man who 
liad tried so hard to do his duty. 

This tendency was increased when, at the instance of 
a Southern man, he accepted the trusteeship of the 
Equitable Life Assurance Society in 1905. It grew 
steadily, until it was only here and there that some echo 
of the old period of misunderstanding was to be found. 
H he could have foreseen the strong outburst of feeling 
which was to come from all over the South when he 
died, I am sure that nothing could have contributed so 
much to his peace of mind and to his satisfaction with 
the prospect for wholesome development. 



M' 



CHAPTER XXI 

SOME OPINIONS OF MEN 



R. Cleveland discussed freely the characteristics 
of the men- with whom he came in contact, ex- 
pressed his opinions of their achievements, and 
gave his impressions of their personalities. These 
were of exceeding interest to those who were so fortu- 
nate as to hear them. If he hked a man he never tired 
of talking about him. He would take into account edu- 
cation, training, environment and the difficulties sur- 
rounding his life and work, and the character of his 
ambitions — in short, the human elements. He was ex- 
acting with men of great gifts and opportunities, but 
the one quality that distinguished him above all others, 
in this as in all his judgments, was a strong sense oi 
justice. 

He had also some pet aversions among men. but it 
was seldom he indulged in the expression of them. Per- 
haps opposition, and even the injustice arising from 
misrepresentation, have seldom been endured with more 
patience than by the man who was fated to have so 
much of them. Occasionally, he was tempted to give 
public expression to his resentment of such ill treatment, 
but this was about the only thing in which he could be 
influenced to suppress his feelings and opinions. 



3i8 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

I had much difficulty, in one case, to deter him from 
referring, in a pubhc speech, at length and with great 
bitterness to a man, now dead, who had pursued him 
with unusual rancor. It took two weeks of patient, unre- 
mitting effort to secure an abandonment of the offensive 
passages ; but it w^as successful, and his own later judg- 
ment justified the policy he had adopted so much against 
his will. As in all other cases, I made notes and recall 
with the keenest interest some of the unfavorable opin- 
ions to which he would give utterance about such men. 
There were not more than four or five, and as all but 
two of them are 'dead, it has seemed to me that regard 
for his memory would best be served by their suppres- 
sion. 

In order to present some of his miscellaneous opin- 
ions in a systematic way, I have massed them in this 
chapter. 

II 

Thomas F. Bayard. When Mr. Cleveland was nomi- 
nated for President in 1884, his leading competitor in 
the convention was Thomas F. Bayard, then and for 
many years before United States Senator from Dela- 
ware. Through the dark days of reconstruction, in the 
excitement incident to a disputed election in 1877, and 
in the discussion of financial and fiscal questions, he had 
been one of a minority almost insignificant in number. 
He, or to speak more correctly, his friends for him, had 
long aspired to be the candidate of his party for Presi- 
dent. He was little of a politician, while the smallness of 
his State and the rigidity of his opinions and his plainness 
of speech on the currency and related questions, united 




THOMAS I-. BAYARD 



Secretary of State in the first Cleveland cabinet, lUOs-KWq, and l-i 
ti) England, 1893-1897 



GROVER CLEVELAND 319 

with the sudden rise of Mr. Tilden to power and influ- 
ence, had conspired to prevent liis nomination in 1S76, 
and the sentimental wave for General Hancock had 
rendered naus'lit the efforts of his friends in iSSo. As 
the coast seemed to clear, they felt very confident, early 
in the contest, that Mr. Bayard's time would come in 
1884, but the rise to position in the vital State of New 
York of another dominating figure could not he fore- 
seen : so that the well-laid plans were again upset. 

Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Bayard did not meet until 
after the election of 1884, when the question of choosing 
his Cabinet confronted the new President. Only two 
candidates, other than the successful one. had made any 
considerable showing in the National Democratic Con- 
vention of 1884, and, as Mr. Hendricks had been elected 
Vice-President, the traditions of politics were fully re- 
spected when Mr. Bayard was tendered and acccjited 
the office of Secretary of State in the new President's 
Cabinet. This was the signal for the welding, in almost 
the shortest time ever known, of one of the many strong 
personal friendships that have so far distinguished our 
political life. 

These men were almost the antipodes of each other. 
While ]\Ir. Bayard was a well-grounded lawyer, vir- 
tually all his life— even before he had reached his 
majority he had made political speeches in his own 
State— had been passed in that public career which he 
both inherited and loved. He was a tireless student of 
the questions of the day, always called upon, by reason 
of his position, to express an opinion upon them in their 
various phases. He spoke freely and well, in spite of 
his then somewhat serious style, wliich fitted well into 
the Senate of that day. As he soon became the recog- 



320 RECOLLECTIONS OE 

nizecl leader of the small minority, he was always ready 
to meet and oppose the party in power. 

On the other hand, Mr. Cleveland was essentially a 
hard-working, plodding lawyer, little given to speech 
either in or out of court, active in politics in an effective, 
though limited, way, interested as a citizen and intel- 
ligent man in national concerns, but to whom these 
far-off events in Washington, and in great national 
conventions, were more an echo, a mere sound, which 
sometimes dimly reached him in the fastness of his busy 
life. 

Despite these essential differences in training, ambi- 
tion, and opportunity, the men who thus met on the 
threshold of great responsibility were singularly alike 
in aim and purpose. Both were inherently conservative 
and, at the same time, eminently progressive, seeking to 
preserve or attain the best, whether it was new or old. 
From the moment of meeting, they understood each 
other and began together that work and friendship 
which were never interrupted until death came to the 
elder. Not only did each know the other, and fit into 
his plans, but he never failed to impart to common 
friends the opinion he held. This was well shown by 
my own experience with both. Whilst absent in Eng- 
land, during Mr. Bayard's Ambassadorship, in the 
second administration, when, in the course of conversa- 
tion, in 1895, the subject of the President's then recent 
illness came up — the precursor of that which was to 
cause his death— he said: 

Mr. Cleveland's death, at the present time, would 
be more than a personal and public misfortune: it 
would be a calamity. In the present delicate condi- 
tion of affairs I do not believe there is a man in the 



GROVER CLEVELAND 321 

United States who could lake up his work and carry 
it through. Do you know that, lookinj.,^ back over 
my own career, the one thing that most amazes me 
is that I should have presumed to let my friends pre- 
sent my name as a candidate for President before 
the same National Convention that had Mr. Cleve- 
land's under consideration? 

Since I have come to know him T realize my <nvn 
temerity. Taking into account the conditions with 
which, then as now, the country was confronted, I 
should have been a failure compared with Mr. Cleve- 
land. He has been just the man for the time, and 
his nomination and election over any other man who 
could have been mentioned was such a necessity as 
to be little less than Providential. Of all the men I 
have ever met, whether at home or abroad, Mr. 
Cleveland is the best poised and strongest. 

The following letters confirm and strengthen Mr. 
Bayard's aporeciation of Mr. Cleveland, as set forth in 
the text : 

Embassy of the United States. 

London, December ig. 1893. 
Dear Mr. Parker: 

You rightly estimate the services of Mr. Cleveland to our 
country. When I see him standing in the narrow pass con- 
fronting such an army of selfishness, recklessness, and 
ignorant passions, and, almost at the sacrifice of his life. 
saving the country from a disaster so profound, so far-reach- 
ing in its evil consequences, so fatal to the happiness and 
prosperity of its people. I find it impossible to estimate the 
true dimensions of his ser\'ice, for I can scarcely find in his- 
tory where one man has rendered greater service to his coun- 
try and mankind. And. this service rendered, he is bracing 
his faculties for another, and against him the phalanx of 

21 



322 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

unjust privileges, who have perverted the sovereign power of 
public taxation into a tremendous engine for private gain, is 
arrayed — with every weapon that unscrupulous selfishness 
can devise. 

But I have written more than you need to have read, and 
can only say that it is very irksome to me to be over here 
away from him and unable to render the aid I long to con- 
tribute and which he seems to need. I rejoice in the bulletin 
Colonel Lamont gives of Mr. Cleveland's health. Never was a 
life more precious to his country. 

Sincerely yours, 

T. F. Bayard. 
George F. Parker, Esq., 

United States Consul, 

Birmingham. 



Embassy of the United States, 

London, March 14, 1894. 
Dear Mr. Parker: 

I chafe a great deal in my isolation here from my friend 
and chieftain Mr. Cleveland. Seldom in history has it been 
given to any man to render more important service to his 
country than he has rendered since his reelection. 

\n the dangerous phases of the silver coinage question he 
individually rescued the people of the United States from the 
gravest peril that has yet threatened them, and he is now 
the champion of liberty of persons and of contract, against 
consolidated wealth, intrenched behind unjust legal privileges. 

I do not believe the public confidence in him is at all less- 
ened, and I am sure he will live to enjoy his honest and 
patriotic triumph. ^^^^ ^^^j^ ^^^^^^ 

T. F. Bayard. 
George F. Parker, Esq., 

United States Consul, 

Birmingham. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 7,23 

III 

This revelation deeply interested me because I had so 
often heard the President express his opinion of the 
Ambassador. When I returned home, and, for the first 
time after the latter's death, visited Mr. Cleveland in 
Princeton, I found him in deep grief. He could scarcely 
talk of anything else, and so when I came away I noted 
the following comments : 

In all my life, whether in public or in private sta- 
tion, I have never come into contact with a man who, 
at all times and under all circumstances, was the 
equal of Mr. Bayard in high and noble qualities, in 
singleness of purpose, and in that honesty which, 
while it never obtruded itself, never wavered. I do 
not believe that he ever so much as had a thought 
which was not at once lofty and patriotic. When I 
think of the despicable treatment accorded to him, 
especially by the United States Senate, at the behest 
of some of its members, I can but marvel at the 
depths to which partizan malignity will sink some 
men. 

When I look back over my own career. T cannot 
understand how I could have consented to oppose 
such a man for the Presidential nomination. I can 
only attribute it to ignorance. Here was a man who 
had behind him, as the heritage created for and by 
himself, the largest patriotism, a broad and compre- 
hensive training, unequaled experience, and an al- 
most perfect knowledge of the country and its needs, 
and yet, in spite of it. L who had lived a quiet and 
obscure life, was preferred over him. T must con- 
fess that, even now, I cannot comprehend it, but I 



324 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

can only thank God for giving me an opportunity to 
know Thomas F. Bayard. 

I am inclined to doubt whether in the history of cur 
politics a coincidence of this kind ever before occurred. 



IV 

J. PiERPONT Morgan. When I saw Mr. Cleveland for 
a two-hour interview in Princeton, soon after the panic 
of October, 1907, he asked me for whatever particulars 
I had gathered about its management. I explained to 
him my understanding of the situation and how it had 
been saved under the masterly leadership of one man, 
Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, to whom, in the course of the 
conversation, he referred at great length, and a portion 
of which I quote herewith : 

I had known Mr. Morgan fairly well in a social 
way during my first administration and the four 
years that I lived in New York. I had gained an 
impression of him as a successful business man and 
had a well-defined idea of his capacity for doing 
great things. I must, however, confess that when it 
came to dealing with him on the bond issues for the 
purpose of replenishing the Government's stock of 
gold, I had a feeling, not of suspicion, but of watch- 
fulness. Public opinion had been wrought up to a 
high pitch by the sensational papers, by untoward 
business conditions, and by the peril in which the na- 
tional credit stood, so that the situation was highly 
critical and required the most careful handling. 
Acting for the Government, I was put into the posi- 
tion of seller, dealing, almost wholly in the view of 
the public, with another man who stood in the rela- 



GROVER CLEYRLAXn 325 

tion of buyer; and wc all know how ditTcrt-nt is the 
point of view\ 

I had not gone far, however, before niv doubts 
disappeared. I found tliat I was in ncj^otiatioii with 
a man of larg-e business coni]M-eliension and of re- 
markable knowledge and prescience. In an hour or 
two of the preliminary discussion T saw he had a 
clear comprehension of what T wanted and what was 
needed, and that, w-ith lightning-like rapidity, he had 
reached a conclusion as to the best way to meet the 
situation. I saw*, too, that, with him, it was not 
merely a matter of business, but of clear-sighted, 
far-seeing patriotism. He was not looking for a 
personal bargain, but sat there, a great patriotic 
banker, concerting with me and my advisers mea- 
sures to avert peril, determined to do his best in a 
severe and trying crisis. 

I have since watched his business career with in- 
terest, not only because he had given me aid in a time 
of need, but also because of the grasp he has devel- 
oped upon financial and industrial conditions and the 
confidence he has inspired in tlie commercial world. 
When the negotiations were over I was also inter- 
ested in getting from him some idea as to how he 
did it, so at one of our concluding sittings T asked: 
"Mr. Morgan, how did you know that you could com- 
mand the cooperation of the great financial interests 
of Europe?" He replied: "I simply told them that 
this was necessary for the maintenance of the public 
credit and the promotion of industrial peace, and 
they did it." This gave me a new and added sense 
of the power of a private citizen when he united in 
his own person intellect and concentration, and a 
comprehensive knowledge of the work he was trying 
to do. 



326 RECOLLECTIONS OF 



James J. Hill. Among the great captains of industry 
with whom Mr. Cleveland came closely into contact, on 
the social side, during both administrations, he was 
wont, in later days, to speak oftenest, perhaps, of James 
J. Hill. In one of my latest talks with him he said: 

Mr. Hill is one of the most remarkable men I have 
seen, especially in his wide knowledge of a great vari- 
ety of questions, and his far-sight into industrial con- 
ditions. While I knew very little about the special 
questions to which he had given his life, I used, once 
in a while, merely in the spirit of mischief and in 
order to get him going, to dispute his premises and 
question his conclusions. He would then proceed to 
illustrate his contentions with a fullness of knowledge 
worthy of the deep student, and with an earnestness 
characteristic of a school-boy. 

He knew more about Oriental trade and its rela- 
tions to the business of this country than any man I 
ever saw. My surprise disappeared when I learned 
that for ten years he had spent more money than the 
Government in sending competent men to Japan and 
China to study the needs of those countries, but it 
was newly aroused to find that he had checked all 
their reports, discarding what he deemed impracti- 
cable, and that he had absorbed their knowledge and 
all other that was available. 

When any information about freight rates on 
railroads was needed, there was little occasion for 
Mr. Hill to refer to reports or statistics. Nor was 
this all. I verily believe that he could have told me 
the rates on all the leading classes of freight between 



GROVER CLEVRLANl) 327 

two stations on his railroad, a hundred or two hun- 
dred miles apart. I am perfectly sure that T have 
never known a man who was at once familiar with 
so many big things and also had the gift of carrying 
about and comprehending what most persons so situ- 
ated would deem too small for their attention. 



VI 

George Gray. From the circumstances surrounding 
his entrance into the Senate, coincidently with the he- 
ginning of Mr. Cleveland's first administration, the 
President was early drawn into more than friendly po- 
litical relations with George Gray of Delaware. I doubt 
whether there was any man in that body during tlie 
period in question — and the same intimacy was carried 
over the interim and through the second term — who 
was closer in the President's confidence. Without ex- 
perience in the larger public life, Mr. Gray had entered 
the Senate under something of a handicap, as the suc- 
cessor of Mr. Bayard upon his retirement, after a long 
and brilliant service, to accept the leading place in the 
Cabinet. It took, however, only a short time to show 
that he was fitted for safe, substantial leadership, a fact 
which none learned more quickly than the President, 
who soon began to lean on him as one of his necessary 
helpers. 

During the succeeding years, Mr. Cleveland — in this 
as in most cases when he was favorably interested in 
men— talked about him with much freedom: 

I do not believe that I have ever come across a 
man better fitted for high responsibility than George 
Gray of Delaware. If he had lived in any State with 



328 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

sufficient population and area to give it political influ- 
ence, nothing could have kept him from becoming 
the candidate of his party for President, and a strong 
one he would have been. Well trained, of perfect 
temper and poise, conciliatory, yet firm both in opin- 
ion and purpose, fair to all, 'but especially true to his 
friends and his principles, he would represent the 
ideas and traditions of the Republic at their best 
estate. 

When I saw Mr. Cleveland once, on a visit home, dur- 
ing the critical period following the Spanish War, he ex- 
pressed the belief' that the only thing which had kept the 
country from discarding the Philippines, and thus aban- 
doning our new colonial system to its fate, was the fact 
that it had come, originally, not with the aid but with 
the consent of Judge Gray, and that it still had his sup- 
port as an experiment. "It would be impossible," he 
continued, "to estimate the dominating influence of such 
a man in a crisis like that through which we are pass- 
ing." During later years, when he was greatly con- 
cerned about the paralysis of his own party, his exclama- 
tion, perhaps made to me fifty times, always was : "Oh, 
if we could only have George Gray as our candidate !" 



VII 

Patrick A. Collins. Few men outside the circle of 
friends who, from the accidents of geography, lived 
about him, were in closer touch with Mr. Cleveland over 
a longer time than General Patrick A. Collins of Boston. 
In one of the most delicate crises of the campaign of 
1884, Collins went to Albany to deliver a speech on the 
issues and especially upon the candidate. The two men 




rATRIcK A. t (H.l.lN ' 
Cuii>ul-gcncral to Londoa, 1694-1*/; 



GROVER CLEVELAND 329 

met as entire strang^ers, hut the orator in his hhint. 
straightforward way visited the caiKhdate, then (Gover- 
nor, at the Capitol. It was only for an li<mr or two, hut, 
in the speech made that evening, with nnlv this short 
notice, the issues, and especially the character of the 
candidate, were dealt with so completely, and vet so con- 
vincingly, that it was a turning-point in a period of de- 
traction and misunderstanding. 

General Collins, recounting the incident to me. at my 
home in Birmingham, some years later, said : 

In all my experience I have never heen so much 
impressed with any man. upon a first interview, as 
I was with Mr. Cleveland. It had heen thought im- 
portant that I should speak just at that juncture, 
and I agreed to do so if Mr. Cleveland would see me 
and explain frankly certain events in his life then 
the suhject of the most scandalous discussion and 
comment. When I went to Albany, I saw at once 
that, new as he w^as to public life, I was in the. pres- 
ence of one of the foremost men of our time. He 
told me just what I wanted to know, was as frank 
and open as a manly boy, and I came away, after 
less than an hour, determined to do everything in 
my power to remove unjust impressions and t<i ren- 
der what assistance I could towards his election. 

On the other side, the feeling was eriually strong. 
In the St. Louis Convention of 1888. when Mr. Cleve- 
land was renominated. General Collins, at the former's 
request, was chosen president of the body, and, all 
through the resulting campaign, was one of the men 
most in demand in discussing the issues at stake. Dur- 
ing the interim between the first and second administra- 



330 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

tions, he was one of the men whose attitude towards a 
third nomination was never in doubt. Left to himself, 
he would never have sought or accepted any preferment 
under the President, but three days after the election, I 
received a letter from William E. Russell, then Governor 
of Massachusetts, asking me to say to the President- 
elect that, although he was acting without arrange- 
ment, or the knowledge or consent of the proposed bene- 
ficiary, the only request he would make, either then or 
at any other time, was the appointment of Patrick A. 
Collins as Consul-General of the United States at 
London. 

For the first time within my knowledge, when he was 
dealing with such a request, Mr. Cleveland gave his 
immediate assent, and I was authorized, in replying to 
the letter, to communicate this decision to Governor 
Russell. Among other things, Mr. Cleveland said: 

I think it exceedingly fitting that this appointment 
should be made. As a rule, I am not in favor of 
sending naturalized citizens in an official capacity 
to the countries of their birth; but, in this case, it 
seems to me most appropriate that it should be done. 
When I remember that here is a man who, coming 
to this country as a boy, entered a coal-mine at 
eleven, learned to read after he was fourteen, gradu- 
ated from the Harvard Law School at twenty-one, 
and entered the politics of his adopted State at 
twenty-five, soon becoming one of her most influ- 
ential citiz-ens, it is impossible for me to imagine 
that any recognition that he will consent to take is 
too good for him. 

When General Collins's term of service was ended, 
the same encomium was pronounced. Later, after his 
death while Mayor of Boston, I asked Mr. Cleveland to 



GROVER CLEVELAND 3,^1 

write something by way of introduction to the official 
biography, with which, departing from a rule lie had 
been compelled to make, he at once complied. 

VIII 

John E. Russkll. It was interesting to note the variety 
of men drawn to Mr. Cleveland at various times during 
his career. In no case was this more remarkable than 
in that of John E. Russell of Massachusetts. He was a 
business man who had achieved a moderate but satisfy- 
ing success comi)aratively early in life. As a result he 
had retired from the activities of business and become a 
farmer — not a mere experimenter with no other purpose 
than to spend money — a real farmer intensely interested 
not only in agriculture for itself, but in the pcoj)lc who 
pursued it. He also began, while still young, to travel 
widely, and, being naturally a student, he maintained 
his intellectual activity unabated, yielding to none of 
the temptations to luxury or idleness which often over- 
whelm ambition when men retire. He was especially in- 
terested, in a very real way, as a student, in economic 
questions, while, as a practical man, he brought to bear 
upon them a strong common sense fully instructed by 
both inclination and study. 

Mr. Russell entered Congress about the time that Mr. 
Cleveland came into the larger public life of the coun- 
try, and at once took a position of influence. He was 
especially attracted by the Tariff Message of 1SS7. and 
when the Mills Bill, which was framed in response tf) 
that popular appeal, came up for discussion, he took a 
prominent part in it and was at once brought into close 
relations with Mr. Cleveland, from which time few men 
in public life held the same interest for him as did Mr. 



332 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Russell. So closely attached was Mr. Cleveland to him 
that, when it came to the formation of the second Cabi- 
net in 1893, determined, if possible, to have this office 
filled by a New England man, he was first choice for 
Secretary of the Navy. He was also tendered and de- 
clined the head of the Department of Agriculture and 
the mission to Italy. He did finally consent to accept an 
unpaid place on the United States Deep Waterways 
Commission, where he was associated with Dr. James 
B. Angell and Lyman E. Cooley. 

In this case, as in that of other men who made a 
strong impression on his mind, Mr. Cleveland was never 
tired of talking of his friend. Many times over he said 
to me: 

I believe that of the public men with whom I have 
come into contact John E. Russell was the best in- 
formed on the greatest variety of questions. I am 
confident that he could have achieved immediate suc- 
cess in any branch of the Government, as there was 
no place he would not have adorned. He had made 
himself so familiar with public questions that few 
things were alien to him. Of quiet and cultivated 
tastes, but with nothing of the dilettante, a social but 
not a society man, he was deeply interested in all 
serious public questions, never sparing effort to 
keep himself in touch with every phase of progress. 
He was a remarkable example of the man who does 
not enter politics until late in life, after devoting him- 
self with the utmost persistence and intelligence to 
the study of important questions. 

Mr. Russell was not an orator in the ordinary 
sense of that term: but, from the beginning of his 
public life, he spoke from such a full mind on the im- 
portant problems that came before him that he soon 




liiHN I£. KISSKLI- 
Mcinljcr ol CuiiKress from Massachusetts 



GROVER CLEVEEAND 333 

made himself one of the most ctTective debaters in 
Congress. He was one of those men who, upon first 
acquaintance, sometimes give tlie idea of mihhicss 
unusual among those found in the hurly-hurly. hut 
this was only the impression made hy that gentleness 
of nature inherent in his character. He was reallv 
one of the most virile men I have ever known. I lis 
late entrance into public life, united with his gra- 
ciousness of character, made him a remarkable sur- 
vival into our changed conditions and always 
reminded me of some of the figures in our earlier 
history. If he had taken up politics, in a serious way, 
in earlier life, there was nothing to which he might 
not have aspired, and, whatever his success, he would 
have ranked with the ablest and best of our public 
men, just as he did almost immediatelv after his en- 
trance into Congfress. 



'&' 



Mr. Cleveland was drawn to him the more strongly 
because of his recognition of the fact that he fitted 
into the remarkable conditions which surrounded him in 
Massachusetts. As a man of mature years, he was a 
needed balance-wheel in the distinguished group of 
young men who, from 1888 to 1896, made Massachusetts 
politics the most interesting and effective seen anywhere 
within the last generation. "He became at once." added 
his friend, "an influential figure, not only in tln^ par 
ticular life, but in the country at large. Few s|)eakers 
were more in demand when the people wanted to hear 
the truth, well told, and to come into personal contact 
with a gracious and distinguished presence. It would be 
idle for anybody to tell me that our politics have degen- 
erated beyond redemption so long as I can conjure up the 
figure of John E. Russell." 



CHAPTER XXII 

PARTY POSITION AND ASSOCIATIONS 



FEW men have been more firmly attached than 
Grover Cleveland to the party of their choice. 
Without inherited politics, purely by his own 
choice, he took his place as a supporter of the Demo- 
cratic party. His convictions, not his interest or his 
associations, led to this decision. In 1856, he marched 
in a Buchanan procession in his town, and from 1858, 
when he cast his first vote, became a voluntary watcher 
at the polls for his party, a duty which he continued 
to perform, during all the intervening years, until 
his nomination for Governor in 1882. He assumed other 
activities and always insisted, in spite of the claims of 
the managers who were inclined to belittle his knowledge 
of politics, that perhaps he had done more work, of a 
practical character, than any dozen of them. So far as 
I am aware, no man who has become President, with the 
possible exception of Chester A. Arthur, ever passed 
through such a novitiate in actual working politics as 
did Mr. Cleveland. It was his often-expressed opinion 
that this training saved him from serious blunders 
when large responsibilities were suddenly thrust upon 
him in 1882 and during later years. 

He did not wear his party garb loosely, so that even 



GROVER CLEVRI.AXl) 335 

within a few months of his dcatli he p^ave ready, entlnisi- 
astic assent to my somewhat sweei)in<j^ declaration: 
"Whatever your own party may do, it is always a mis- 
take to vote for a Republican." With liini politics was 
a matter of principle. In the two ])arties, takin_G: one 
year with another, men would, in his view, tend to even 
themselves up, but the fundamental principles and j)ol- 
icies remained, with only the smallest chanj:^e, so that, 
in the end, more could be done for good causes by stick- 
ing to your gims than by abandoning them every now 
and then. 

As his principles were simple, so he believed that the 
party of his choice best embodied attachment t(^ them, 
and if it was adhered to, assured their final success. Out 
of the mass of his writings and speeches, his ideas of 
the functions of government were probably best summed 
up in a few words at the end of a sentence in his veto 
of the Texas Seed Bill. "The lesson should be con- 
stantly enforced," he there insisted, "that, though the 
people support the Government, the Government should 
not support the people." It is doubtful whether the so- 
cialistic tendencies of the time were ever epitomized so 
concisely or more truthfully, but it is certain that noth- 
ing could better have expressed Mr. Cleveland's one 
political creed. It may be old-fashioned, but, at least. 
it represents and emphasizes what this life meant in all 
its actions and teachings. 



II 

In spite of his strong attachment to his own party, he 
expected other men, whatever their convictions or how- 
ever much he might combat them, to form their opinions 
upon reason and then to stick to them with tiie persis- 



3S6 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

tence which was his own distinguishing- characteristic. 
At the same time, he welcomed that large independence 
which was founded upon principle. If he was himself, 
in some degree, the beneficiary of this quality, he was, to 
perhaps still larger degree, its victim. Probably no man 
was ever prouder of his party than when more than a 
million of its members voted, in 1896, to rebuke the open 
and wanton abandonment of the principles, traditions, 
and precedents for which it had stood during more than 
a hundred years. He always contended that resentment 
of this betrayal was one of the finest exhibitions of lofty 
and unselfish patriotism seen in the history of free gov- 
ernment. If such machinery was useful for good pur- 
poses, its use for bad ones and by designing men was so 
dangerous that no proper methods for preventing it 
should be left unused. 



Ill 

Samuel J. Tilden. I do not think that Mr. Cleveland 
ever met Samuel J. Tilden — which seems strange con- 
sidering the part they played in the political history of 
the last generation. There were many things in com- 
mon in their public careers, the most important being 
the fact that both entered practical politics late in life 
and that the period of the larger activity of each was 
short. Mr. Tilden became Governor in 1S75, was nom- 
inated for President in 1876, passed through a disputed 
Presidential contest in 1877, declined a renomination in 
1880, and, by his own act, had, by 1882, eliminated him- 
self from public attention. He had, however, been a 
power in politics since 1865 ^"^ never ceased his real 
activities until his death in 1886. 

It so happened that some of his interested and influen- 



GROVER CLEVELAND ^^y 

tial years were coincident with the rise to position and 
power of Mr. Cleveland, whose career, in its turn, closed 
officially in 1897, thus giving him rather a lonc^er term 
of public position, hut a much shorter one in intluencc 
than that of his illustrious predecessor. 



IV 



While Mr. Tilden was carrying on that remarkable 
contest w^ith the Canal Ring in New York, as well a^ 
through the years of preparation for it, Mr. Cleveland 
was active, in a small way, in Democratic politics. The 
former had a way, in some counties, of utilizing a rather 
unusual class of men, and it so happened that Erie 
County was one of these. As a result, so far as the pri- 
mary activities were concerned, Mr. Cleveland found 
himself antagonizing the leaders to whom the older 
man had intrusted his interests. It was, therefore, 
rather as a recognized opponent of Mr. Tilden than as 
a friend and supporter that the younger tried his wings 
in local politics. This did not arise from opposition to 
the policies involved, but purely to the instruments 
chosen to represent their author. 

By 1882, this local feeling of jealousy had virtually 
disappeared, so that, when Mr. Cleveland's name was 
presented for the governorship, he found his princii)al 
supporters among the recognized and settled adherents 
of Mr. Tilden. The older man watched with much in- 
terest the rise of the younger, increased by the reports 
of his friends and still further intensified when the 
remarkable result of the gubernatorial election of iHSj 
was announced — which proved, in reality, to be another 
Tilden victory. 



22 



338 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

The new Governor accepted, almost as if made for 
him, the general policies inaugurated by Mr. Tilden. He 
surrounded himself with the same friends, and especially 
was this the case with his military secretary, Daniel S. 
Lamont, who had long been recognized as one of the 
potent Tilden lieutenants among the younger men. Be- 
hind him and many others of the same type, was Daniel 
Manning, perhaps the most astute, other than Mr. Til- 
den himself, of all the political managers developed in 
New York, by either party, during that remarkable 
period. When the time came for carrying before the 
country the contest for the Presidential nomination in 
1884, all the distinctive friends of Mr. Tilden had rallied 
to the support of Mr. Cleveland, and, what was more 
important and influential in the country at large, the 
opposition to both was drawn from the same elements 
and forces. 



When the nomination had been made it was only natu- 
ral that Mr. Tilden should be deeply interested in the 
resulting campaign, and especially in the letter of ac- 
ceptance, which, as a form of political document, had 
assumed, since the campaign of 1876, a new importance. 
After its preparation by Governor Cleveland, somewhere 
in the North Woods, and when it was ready for issue, 
he resolved to submit it to Mr. Tilden and to no other 
man. Colonel Lamont was the chosen messenger, and 
when he reached "Greystone" with it and told of his 
errand, the first question was: ''Colonel, is this subject 
to change or amendment in any way ?" "Not in a single 
word," was the reply. "The Governor asked me to read 
it to you with as much care and as many times as you 



GROVER CLF.VRLANi:) 330 

might like; but it is finished, is ready for puhhcation, 
and, as I shall not see him again l)efore it is issued, it 
cannot be changed either in wording or arrangement." 
With Mr. Tilden, when the reading began, was tlu- 
late Andrew H. Green, long and closely associated with 
him. For some unknown reason, he was very stronglv 
opposed to Mr. Cleveland, and as the slow and careful 
reading of the letter proceeded, at some sentiment or 
phrase which was unsatisfactory to him he grunted out 
a contemptuous "Huh, huh, huh!" This was rej^eated 
three or four times, until finally Mr. Tilden — who was a 
remarkably well-poised and polite man— tired of these 
unseemly exclamations, turned round sharply upon Mr. 
Green and said, with the greatest emphasis and in the 
most peremptory manner: "Oh, shut up!" after which 
the reading went on to the end, with Mr. Tilden's ap- 
proval of both the form and the tone of the letter. 



VT 



After the election, ]\Ir. Tilden— whose knowledge of 
our financial conditions was larger than that of any 
other man of his period— saw the great peril that lurked 
in the continued coinage of silver under the IMand- 
Allison Act, and, through a friend, communicated his 
fears to the President-elect, with the suggestion that he 
should wTite a letter setting forth his views. So. on 
February 24, 18(85, only eight days liefore the inaugura- 
tion, there was published the letter addressed to "A. 1. 
Warner and other member.s-elect of the new Congress" 
— the famous document in which the danger of the then 
existing conditions was pointed out. and a change of 
policy was recommended and enforced. 



340 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

As Mr. Cleveland was in the throes of preparing his 
inaugural address and of completing his Cabinet, he 
had little time for writing such an important paper — 
short though it was to be. At Mr. Tilden's suggestion, 
he consented to its preparation by the late Manton 
Marble and signed it as his own. I should not like to es- 
timate the number of times Mr. Cleveland told me this 
story, always accompanied by its sequel: "Whether as 
Mayor, Governor, or President, that was the first and 
last time I ever signed anything either enunciating or ad- 
vocating a policy which was not written wholly by my- 
self," and I am sure that nothing in all his public career 
caused him deeper regret. 

It was not that he resented the doctrines set forth, 
because they were in full accord with his own ideas, or 
even the form, and the declaration was the first in a 
long line of consistent arguments which, to the end of 
his days, he never ceased to enforce with all his energy 
and power. But he did resent what he characterized as 
his own weakness in permitting another to do for him 
what he ought to have done himself. 

As an effect of this, when I came, in the collection of 
his writings and speeches, in 1892, to this first author- 
ized expression on the silver question, it was with some 
difficulty that I was able to overcome his objections and 
to obtain leave to include it. Even then he insisted: 
"Some day, if you outlive me, I want you to make this 
story public." I now redeem the promise then made. 

Out of this resentment of signing, under protest, the 
work of anotlier, Mr. Cleveland told, during his last 
year, with great glee and at his own expense, the fol- 
lowing story: 

Early in my career, perhaps after my first election 
to the Presidency, and when public knowledge of me 



GROVER CLEVFLAXn :;,i 

was still slicrht. some one asked Mr TiUlcn: "What 
sort of man is this Cleveland?" "Dh." was the 
reply, in that thin, squeaky vojee which characterized 
his later years, "he is the kind of man who would 
rather do somethin,G^ badly for himself tlian to have 
somebody else do it well." 



VII 

A GREAT deal is talked and written about the £::reat State 
of New York and the place it holds or should hold in 
the politics of the Union, but whatever it may or may 
not contribute, sight should not be lost of the fact that, 
since the close of the Civil War, it has q^iven to public life 
two men of the very first rank. These two men suc- 
ceeded each other as party leaders, their careers lapping" 
for a considerable period. Samuel J. Tilden and Grover 
Cleveland certainly understood each other, if this was 
ever given to two men, and that, too. in spite of any 
seeming clash or the jealous watchfulness of their 
friends. 

The survivor summed up 'the characteristics of the 
other in words so few and fit that they might with 
equal propriety stand as the epitaph of both. Tn 
writing to the Kings County Democratic Club, under 
date of February 2, 1888, in reply to an invitation to 
attend a banquet on Tilden's birthday, Mr. Cleveland 
said: 

He [Tilden] taught the limitation of Federal power under 
the Constitution, the absolute necessity of public economy, 
the safety of a sound currency, honesty in public place, the 
responsibility of public servants to the people, care for those 
who toil with their hands, a proper limitation of corporate 
privileges, and a reform of the Civil Service. 



342 RECOLLECTIONS OF 



VIII 

David B. Hill. There was a vague impression in the 
pubHc mind, during many years, that some kind of natu- 
ral and unhealable antagonism had arisen between Mr. 
Cleveland and David B. Hill, as the result of the success 
of the State ticket in 1888 and the coincident defeat of 
the Presidential electors. It was a matter seldom men- 
tioned or discussed by or with him in the interval be- 
tween his two terms in the Presidency. He never seri- 
ously regretted his own defeat, save for an occasional 
reference to what he might have done in matters of Fed- 
eral taxation and expenditure if he could have had an- 
other four years in which to develop the remarkable 
policies just fairly inaugurated. In 1906, however, the 
subject came up as a topic of conversation, and, for the 
first time, either to me or in my presence, he spoke of it 
with great freedom. 

I want you sometime to correct the false impres- 
sion abroad that I either have, or had, any idea or 
impression that the Presidential ticket was the victim 
of treachery in New York in the election of 1888. 
Nobody could understand better than I how that 
seemingly contradictory result was reached. My 
campaign for reelection was, of necessity, made upon 
a single national issue so forced to the front that, as 
I had foreseen, there was no such thing as evading 
it, even if my party or myself had so desired. 

On -the other hand, the State campaign had issues 
peculiar to itself, with their own supporters, men to 
whom the tariff had, from a business and political 
point of view, only the remotest interest. The brew- 



GROVER CLKVKLAND 343 

ers had their own orp^anizalion for llic purpose of 
protecting the property under tlicir management and 
jurisdiction. They had the right to use their i)ower 
for their own protection, and that tliey exercised this 
right and power in their own way, in no way const i 
tuted a grievance so far as the Presidential ticket 
was concerned. If they could attract votes from a 
weak and unpopular Republican candidate — sup- 
posed to be inimical to them — to his opponent who 
would be fair because he was strong, they had a per- 
fect right to do so. I had had sufficient experience 
in State politics to understand the whole situation 
and never permitted myself to reproacli Governor 
Hill or his friends for the untoward result so far as 
I was personally concerned. 

I have never ceased to admire and praise Governor 
Hill for his clean, high-minded administration of the 
affairs of the great State of New York. It kept 
down taxation, and was efficient in carrying out the 
traditional ideas of his party and our institutions. 



IX 

In connection with this opinion expressed so many times 
by Mr. Cleveland, and here condensed into narrow 
limits, it is interesting to record Mr. Hill's own im- 
pressions after his reelection as Governor in 1SS8 and 
the coincident defeat in New York of the Democratic 
Presidential electors. As soon as the returns were fully 
known, Governor Hill said to his particular friend. 
Alton B. Parker, since Chief Judge of the Court of 
Appeals in New York and Democratic candidate for 
President in 1904: 



344 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

This ends me as a Presidential candidate, whether 
for nomination or election. No "explanation either 
by myself or my friends can make headway against 
the logic of events. Unjust as these inferences are, 
nothing will ever convince the party that I was not 
to blame in some way, either direct or mysterious, for 
the result in this State which showed my election and 
the defeat of the Presidential ticket with Mr. Cleve- 
land at its head. It is one of the penalties of politics 
that no man must succeed at the expense of his asso- 
ciates on a party ticket — whether this success comes 
with or without his procurement or knowledge. 

Nobody knows better than you that this is a re- 
sult which I have feared, because of the intense con- 
centration of effort upon the Presidential ticket, and 
I know also that Mr. Cleveland himself fully under- 
stands and appreciates the conditions. But this will 
make no difference in the popular feeling, so that I 
shall always be held responsible for this untoward 
result — one which I have not only had no share in 
producing, but from which every element in my char- 
acter recoils. 



William E. Russell. Only those closely associated 
with Mr. Cleveland from 1885 to 1893 can understand 
or appreciate the quality of the men whom he gathered 
about him and those, of the same type, who followed 
from afar off. Many of them, indeed far more than a 
majority, never saw the man whom they followed, and 
he never consciously thought of himself as their leader. 
All were united for work in a cause to which they were 
devoted. Certainly never before in the 'history of the 




will lAM I Kl -.-^I I I 
Govcrnorof Massachuictls i»»j. it-JJ-^l 



GROVER CLEVia.AND 345 

country were so many cone:cnial spirits drawn top^cthcr. 
and probably there never will be a^ain such devotion to 
an idea, lying outside the so-called moral movements or 
agitations. 

It is difficult to discriminate amonc^ tliose who served 
in this army, organized not for reform or revolution, but 
for the maintenance of national traditions. Hut it may 
be permissible to name, in William K. Russell of Massa- 
chusetts, one man typical of the rest. Comin.c;' into po- 
litical activity in his State soon after the advent of the 
Cleveland ideas and methods, he forged rapidly to the 
front, so that he soon came to represent these at their 
best estate. Young, active, ambitious on the best lines, 
and capable of commanding the devotion of like-minded 
men everywhere, he was not long in commanding recog- 
nition as their leader. 

If there was any secret about the rise of Governor 
Russell it was that he was the embodiment of the aspira- 
tions and the work of the most earnest and enthusiastic 
band of young men ever associated for work in common. 
He was merely the voice and the expression of this lead- 
ership. If a subject was to be studied, there were a 
dozen, or fifty, or a hundred of the best educated and 
most intelligent young men in the State ready and anx- 
ious to do the work and to put the results before "Billy" 
Russell. If there were not enough of them among the 
families traditionally Democratic, it was easy and natu- 
ral to draw recruits from like families with Republican 
teaching and training. 

Many of them were themselves effective speakers, but 
Governor Russell was their mouthpiece. If an agreed 
policy was to be exploited, he had the ear of the people 
of the entire State, so that the cause, in which all were 
enlisted, was sure to command a sympathetic hearing. 



346 GROVER CLEVELAND 

Thus, when it was concluded to canvass the whole State 
on the tarifif question, it was possible so to present 
the arguments that every local industry was available 
to illustrate the Cleveland point of view, which was 
brought home to each typical community. There were 
no appeals to class or local 'interests, because the ideas 
involved were too large and general for that. But Rus- 
sell had the gift of mastering a question by assimilating 
all the facts gathered by others, and of pressing them 
home with a force and a persuasiveness seldom equaled 
in our history. In this way he became more than a man: 
he was a syndicate. 



XI 

Early in his career. Governor Russell became intimate 
with Mr. Cleveland, especially after the latter's removal 
to Massachusetts as a summer resident. It was an asso- 
ciation based upon congenial opinions about public ques- 
tions, but soon became personal. From this time for- 
ward, everything great was expected of the brilliant and 
practical young man who so successfully reflected and 
represented the best sentiment of New England, and, so 
far as my own observation and knowledge went, I am 
certain that the loss of no other political friend of his 
time — except Mr. Bayard — was more deeply felt by Mr, 
Cleveland. He firmly believed that, with Russell alive 
and active, the future of the party would have been 
assured, and no effort on his part was wanting to impress 
this conclusion upon others. It would be safe to say that 
from the day that the death of William E. Russell, in 
the Maine woods, was reported to Mr. Cleveland, he 
lost confidence, though not hope, in the maintenance of 
his party as he had known it. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

STYLE IN WRITING AND SPEECH 



WHEN Mr. Cleveland came into tlic hi.c^her pub- 
lic life he had had little experience in cither 
writing or speaking. He had been a reader, 
in early life, of poetry, and he knew the Bible very well 
— much of it, as was the habit of the time, having been 
committed to memory. But the stirring events in tlie 
midst of which he lived and the necessity for taking up 
hard work at an early age had made it impossible for 
him, over a period of many years prior to 1881, to main- 
tain his studies. He was fairly diligent in keeping up 
with the political discussion of the day, whether con- 
tentious or constructive, written or spoken, but even this 
was done without system or any purpose of studying 
style. He made speeches on occasions that seemed to 
him important enough to lead him to overcome his dis- 
inclination to this exercise. He was never available for 
canvassing his county and, when elected Governor, had 
probably never taken part as a speaker in any public 
meeting outside of the limits of Erie County. 

And yet from the day that he came into the larger 
public view, he both spoke with ease and wrote with a 
certain clearness, so that no one could have an excuse 



348 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

for misunderstanding or misinterpreting what he said 
or wrote. He had a rather unusual facihty for offhand 
or extempore speech, but, as his position exposed him to 
misrepresentation, he could seldom be induced to use 
this gift. 



II 

Everything was prepared with a care, a patience, and 
an effort — all of which, for a man of his commanding 
abilities, were unusual. .He would study for days over 
a question — whether it was familiar to him or not. He 
had a way of saying that he wanted to see it on every 
side so that he would not make more mistakes than he 
was entitled to. Then he would think it over carefully, 
turn it in his mind, until he had fairly saturated himself, 
and get a point of view which must commend itself 
wholly to his reason, with only the smallest regard either 
to preconceived or popular opinion. He made few notes, 
except for dates and historical facts, for which his mem- 
ory had no serious liking, but would write a first or 
rough draft of his speech, generally making it much 
longer than he wanted. This draft was cut and carved 
until it had only a slight resemblance to its original 
form, when a fair copy would be made, always in his 
own handwriting. Then the process of destruction and 
reconstruction would begin over again, and a new fair 
copy be made. 

By this time it had nearly reached finality so far as 
form was concerned. He would then go over it again 
for purely verbal niceties or for the insertion of new 
thoughts that had come to him. Here, if the conditions 
were favorable, that is, if the right friend was at hand, 
he must listen to the careful reading aloud of the now 



GROVER CLEVELAND 349 

nearly completed speech or pii])lic letter. This was first 
done in a direct, straightforward way. not subject to in- 
terruption. He desired, in this way, not only to discover 
how it would sound when spoken or read. hut. if it was 
in the form of a speech, how long it would take in the 
delivery. The latter test was always sure to he mislead- 
ing, for the reason that, no matter how deliberately he 
might read it in his study, it would always take at least 
one fourth more time to deliver it when he found an 
audience before him. 

After it had been subjected to this process it was read 
aloud again for suggestions, for the elimination of tauto- 
logical word or phrase, and for such other modifications 
as might suggest themselves either to reader or listener. 
He wanted real criticism — not mere formal adherence to 
his point of view^ Generally speaking, I may say that, 
aside from verbal changes promptly made when he 
was convinced that they w^re good — for his native obsti- 
nacy, which he always insisted was his principal virtue, 
would often come out— I have seldom known him to 
insert a suggested paragraph, and then never in the 
exact form prepared for him; but it was comparatively 
easy, in general, to convince him that he ought to leave 
out a paragraph, a sentence, or a phrase, as redundant, 
or clumsy, or impolitic. 



Ill 

All these processes completed, he was ready for the 
final fair copy, which was still to be read aloud again 
and in which unimportant verbal changes might be made. 
In this last, the copying of the whole impressed it upon 
his mind in its spoken form, as his remarkably retentive 
memory then took such fast hold upon it that it never 



350 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

again let go until the time of need had passed. It was 
next put into type, the revised proofs carefully read, the 
insignificant changes in phraseology noted, both on pa- 
per and in the memory, and the work was done. 

I have never known a man who took the same unfail- 
ing care, or showed the unwearied industry and untiring 
patience that characterized him. When the time came 
for the delivery of the speech, he would go over it, 
while dressing, just before his appearance at the dinner 
or other occasion, and would never see or think of it 
again. I had the curiosity once to follow him by the 
printed copy as sent to the press, with the result that, in 
the whole three quarters of an hour consumed in its de- 
livery, he only made a single change: substituting one 
synonym for another. Once prepared, he gave himself 
no further trouble, either as to dinner or conversation, 
or any of the interruptions which so often disconcert the 
public speaker. He did not willingly consent to appear 
in public, but, as it was necessary for him to do so, he 
went fully prepared to give his audience the best that 
was in him, and then troubled himself no more. 

The following, written when, in December, 1890, he 
was struggling with an Andrew Jackson birthday speech, 
shows some of his difficulties in getting under way : 

After a good deal of search, the book containing the execu- 
tive messages, including all of Jackson's, has been found 
among my books. With what you kindly sent me this after- 
noon I think I have all I want to get on for to-day. at least in 
my blundering way. I have no idea where I shall bring up. 
but I shall plug along to-day and to-morrow, hoping that I 
shall be led along into a pretty fair path. 

This expresses a feeling pretty common with him, 
and uses a form of words very often in his mouth or on 



GROVER CL1':\1':LAMJ> 351 

his pen. '*In my blundering way." was one of iiis stock 
phrases when referring to anything that he liad to write 
for the pubHc, and it did express a real mental attitude 
with him. He so dreaded the work of writing an<l re- 
writing, and was by nature so averse to public ai)i)ear- 
ances, wnth their abnormal strain, and the personal atten- 
tion and fiattery which were so hateful to him. that this 
letter described both a state of mind and a process. 



IV 

So far did Mr. Cleveland carry the spirit of indepen- 
dence in the matter of ideas that, if some one made a 
suggestion about a speech, or political document, or let- 
ter, he would, perhaps, seem either hostile or indifferent 
to it. In many cases, it might be new to him. or be ca[) 
able of a novel or striking application, but because it had 
not occurred to him, or from his fear that he might be 
beholden to others, he would reject it out of hand. How- 
ever, he did not forget it, and. as he thouf^ht it over, it 
w^ould grow^ on him until, in probably two or three days, 
he would become convinced that it was an excellent idea. 
In the meantime, however, it had passed thrcnigh the 
crucible of his mind, and any i)roperty in it. or any 
credit the original possessor might have had. would 
have disappeared, and a complete transfer had been 
effected. In other words, he must think himself original, 
whether he was or not, a quality which, after all. demon- 
strated his power of adaptation and made liis as.sociates 
of the utmost use to him. 

This was illustrated many times in my own experience, 
until I finally recognized that if I desired him to use a 
suggestion, it must be given to him in some such lorni 



352 RFXOLLECTIONS OF 

as that already described. Once when he was to make a 
Pilgrim Day speech in Brooklyn, I sent him an editorial 
on this subject which I had written, a year or two earlier, 
for a New York newspaper. Before it reached him he 
had begun his address, which contained words almost 
identical with my own. He at once wTOte from Lake- 
wood, citing the parallel passages, so that there might 
be no opportunity for confusion as to originality or sug- 
gestion : 

I 'II tell you a curious thing illustrating the saying. "Great 
minds run in the same channel." I had begun my New Eng- 
land dinner speech^ and will cut out and send you a sentence 
which may look familiar to you if you remember the opening 
paragraph in your editorial^ of two years ago. 



While Mr. Cleveland devoted this care and attention to 
all the forms of public utterance, his private letters were 
composed with an ease which showed that he knew just 
Avhat he wanted to say and how to say it. These were 
written with his own hand, and, while not revised or re- 
written, either by himself or another, were clear, gener- 
ally concise, and went directly to the point. His humor 
or playfulness often found vent in them, but he was as 
little wont, in them as in public utterances, to indulge 
himself in irony, or satire, or figures of speech. 

^The Speech : "We used to see in almanacs, opposite certain days of the 
year upon which we were entering, the prophetic words, ' Look out for rain 
a,bout these days.' It would hardly be amiss to find now in our almanacs 
opposite the latter part of December, 'About these days, look out for the 
Pilgrims.' " 

^The Editorial: "If the old-fashioned almanac could come back, there 
would certainly be found among the entries within the present calendar week 
this one, or something like it: 'About this time, look out for speeches 
about the Pilgrims and the Puritans.' " 



GROVER CLF.VKLAXn y.i, 

He would so allude to his sports as to siiow that, while 
he enjoyed them, he still did not look ujMin them as the 
chiei business of life. Writing^ me from Marion, Massa- 
chusetts, in 1890, he said: "I spend my time |)rincipally 
fishinij and answering letters. Correspondence, like the 
villain, still pursues me. I am having a good-for-nothing 
time, which, for a vacation, I suppose to be the best sort." 
Again, later from the same place, he took up the same 
theme: "I am 'at this present sitting' the laziest man 
in America by all odds, and I sometimes fear that T have 
lapsed into a chronic state of worthlessness." From 
Saranac Inn he announced: ''T have n(^t seen a deer 
yet, but expect to get a shot during the coming week. 
Of course, you know that means a dead one." 



VI 

Perhaps there were few things more dreaded tlian dic- 
tation to a stenographer, and Mr. Cleveland never re- 
sorted to it, even for his routine correspondence, until 
in July, 1892, when, with a national campaign on his 
hands, he was living far off at Buzzards Ray, where he 
could not shift any part of the burden. So, during that 
year, when, according to a letter, he was "working till 
two o'clock every morning trying to get from under a 
snowslide of letters with very little success," he con- 
.sented to employ a secretary, Robert Lincoln O'P.rien o{ 
Boston, a young man who, being intelligent and etVicient. 
was of great assistance to him both then. and. later in 
Washington, for a year or so in his second term. lUit 
dictation was a very difficult art for him to master — in 
fact, he never pretended to master it. He was very awk- 
ward at it, and the resulting letters were apt to be diffuse 

23 



354 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

and inconclusive, while those of his own writing were 
always concise and informing. To the very end, he 
only used this aid — which has become a necessity for the 
modern business or public man — in the most unimpor- 
tant cases. His resort was still the pen. 

This was well shown, upon the occasion of his sixty- 
ninth birthday, in March, 1906. There was not only the 
usual flood of letters on this occasion : but a group of his 
friends had come together and agreed to write, in a 
limited endless chain, to their friends and his, asking 
them to write or telegraph to him in Florida, where he 
was having a short winter vacation. It was also agreed, 
at the same time, that, in my capacity as secretary to the 
trustees of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, of 
which he was Chairman, I should communicate with him 
and offer to take up the routine work of having the an- 
swers type-written from a few forms, sending them to 
him for signature. 

The number was great, and as his friends had pro- 
cured the sending of many of them, they thought it un- 
fair to burden him with the heavy task of writing an- 
swers. They had little hope of making any favorable 
impression upon him, an opinion which was fully con- 
firmed by the following extract from a letter received in 
reply to my offer : 'T have received your last letter and 
am much obliged for your offer to attend to the acknow- 
ledgment of the letters and despatches of congratulation. 
I determined, however, to do it myself in my, own hand- 
writing and have already responded to a large portion of 
them." He not only did this, but he even deemed it nec- 
essary to write me a separate letter in reply to my own 
congratulations. 



GROVER CLK\'I-:LAXD 355 



VII 



In the days when I was editing; his writinj^s and 
speeches, it was, naturally, necessary for nie to see him 
almost every day ahout some phase of tlic work in hand. 
He had never kept any copies of his earlier speeciics, and 
some that I found had been actually forgotten as to time 
or place. He would have in his mind some vaij^uc idea 
that he had spoken somewhere fipon some particular 
topic. The subject, the tenor of his speech, and its bear- 
ings upon a question that might come up again for dis- 
cussion, would be firmly fixed in his mind, but all other 
particulars would have vanished. His memory, so keen 
upon many sides, was unusually treacherous in others. 

He had not the smallest pride in anything that he had 
done so far as the keeping of copies, or giving the small 
est thought to its preservation, was concerned. And yet. 
when I came upon some out-of-the-way utterance, and 
brought it to him for verification, it would give him 
much pleasure, and he would often say: "Well, I had 
nearly forgotten that speech, but I don't believe T liave 
ever since expressed that particular idea so well any- 
where else." It was often necessary, owing to bad print- 
ing or worse proof-reading, to produce a fair text out 
of sentences and paragraphs almost hopelessly mixed. 

Seeing, then, the necessity for this work, he became 
interested in it, and many touches,- inten.sely enlightening 
about the beginnings of his political career, would come 
out. One of the most interesting of these was the con- 
clusion, easily reached by me, that his whole public ca- 
reer, great and commanding though it was. had cc^ne to 
him without even the smallest calculation on his jiart. 
I could never detect anv signs of early ambition for po- 



356 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

sition or power, and to this I attribute the almost abso- 
lute impossibility for him to understand the men whose 
lives, from their earliest days, had been devoted to the 
seeking of one office after another, always keeping the 
Presidency in mind as a goal. 

He often expressed the opinion that while men like 
himself, without experience or aspirations, who had 
been preferred for high places, were forced to over- 
come many handicaps from lack of knowledge of the 
larger conditions, the type of men under discussion had 
become, as it were, blase in politics, had formed so many 
connections all along the line of ascent, incurred obliga- 
tions to so many sorts of people, and weakened them- 
selves by so many intrigues and compromises, that they 
could seldom command a nomination, much less an elec- 
tion. While he recognized that he himself was in no 
sense an accident, but one who took the highest steps all 
at once instead of slowly — one who illustrated Crom- 
well's saying that no man climbs so high as he who knows 
not whither he is going — he always expressed the con- 
viction that this method of selection was one of the inci- 
dents of popular government, and that, on the whole, it 
had commended itself by its success from the days of 
Jackson downward. 

VIII 

Occasionally^ the question of style, especially as ap- 
plied to his own writing and speaking, would come up in 
conversation, and he would lament what he termed the 
absence of this quality in him. He would say: 

People sometimes talk about my style, but I have 
never been able to discern that I have any such thing 
about me. I have not had time to do anything in the 



GROVKR CLI'A^a.AXn 357 

way of preparation for duties or work tliat niij^ht 
not come my way. It is seldom, so far as writinp: or 
speech is concerned, tliat the work I was doinpj at 
any particular time could he looked upon as prelimi- 
nary to another kind of work that has followed, that 
I could either consciously or unconsciously make 
one thing a preparation for another. I have always 
sought to do the thino- actually in hand in a manner 
as respectable and effective as I could, leaving the 
rest to take care of itself. In this way, as you have 
seen, I could make no calculations, and, for this rea- 
son, if for no other, I have had to rely upon the day 
for the performance of its duties. 

He said that he had not found time to study continu- 
ally the models of our language, as one ought to do 
and as he must do if he would master it ; so he had to he 
contented with a vocabulary that just met his needs at 
the time. '*In no respect," he often declared with em- 
phasis, "can I be said to have a style which either so 
stands out that I can be recognized by it — and this is 
one of the tests— or that has in it any of the element'^ 
of eloquence and polish, also a necessary quality." Again 
he would say: "No, I have no style. I simply say what 
is in my mind and seems to be necessary at the time, and 
say it in my blundering way, and that is all there is to it." 



IX 

His conversation, when with a single friend or in a 
group of men who understood him. was clean-cut. full of 
reminiscence, always plain and clear, and without a trace 
of the pedantic or the involved. It was much clearer 



358 GROVER CLEVELAND 

than his writing, and the pity is that more of his friends 
and associates have not noted down and reported his 
opinions upon the many men and questions that lay, to 
some extent, outside the public life by which he is known 
and must, in the main, be judged. 

If an unknown or unwelcome auditor came in, or if 
some question involving bitterness of feeling towards a 
man, a party, or a sect, should come up, or if some flunky 
sought to make terms with him, he could be as silent as 
General Grant. He was certainly at his best, so far as 
geniality was concerned, with three companions, all well 
known to him and thoroughly in his confidence, at a 
plain old-fashioned dinner in his own house. Those 
privileged to participate could never forget the ease, 
the freedom, the fun, the playfulness, the cleanliness of 
word and thought, or the ability to listen as well as to 
talk. Such nights were marked with a red letter by the 
congenial spirits who had been afforded an opportunity 
thus to see, in undress, the mind of the man who be- 
longed in the front rank of his time. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

PUBLIC OPINION — LEGISLATION — COURTS 



PUBLIC Opinion. In spite of his jiolitjcal cxpcri 
ence and assured position there were two impor- 
tant developments in our modern American puhlic 
life to which Mr. Cleveland would never adjust himself, 
namely, the dealing with newspapers in such a way as 
to command sympathy or support rather than irritation 
or opposition, and that other, the art of managing legis- 
lative bodies. Both are curious developments in the 
history of democracy, revealing many of its weaknesses, 
while, at the same time, permitting the strong and asser- 
tive man in high executive office, on the one hand, to 
create or follow public sentiment, and, on the other, to 
give it a practical direction or guidance in the absence 
of which it has become next to impossible either to pro- 
mote or prevent changes. 

Throughout my narrative examples have been cited 
to show how lacking the subject of my study was in the 
gift of dealing with newspapers or even, of his own 
thought and motion, of obtaining anything like fair 
publicity for the worthy and useful objects he sought tf) 
promote. He did not care to deal either witli them or 
with the men who made or directed policies or the others 



36o RECOLLECTIONS OF 

whose function it was to do the practical work. He 
would neither court any man, nor permit any man to 
court or flatter him, and this, of course, was the funda- 
mental reason why, as a public man, he would have noth- 
ing- to do with newspaper editors or proprietors. The 
permanent antagonisms that he aroused were due almost 
wholly to this quality. He not only would not go out of 
his way to invite such men to luncheons, or dinners, or 
to social occasions, but he would not do so at all. H this 
method was suggested, he would reject such overtures 
with a positiveness that shortened many an interview. 



II 

There was no time when he could not have had the 
most enthusiastic support of the newspapers of his own 
party for anything that he might have wanted, within 
reason. He had only to do as others had done before 
him and have done after him; but it was impossible. 
Within a few months of his death he said to me: 

I simply could not and would not use these methods 
to ingratiate myself with the editors or owners of 
newspapers. I realized fully the fate that I invited, 
but I looked upon my table or my parlor as my 
own, places reserved for my friends and for the con- 
genial men whom they might send to me, and not 
proper mediums for bringing me support for public 
acts or policies. Merely because men were person- 
ally agreeable did not seem to me to constitute any 
reason for making myself familiar with them. I 
know that others in like positions pursue a different 
policy, but I notice that, in the end, they always suf- 
fer for it. Such methods grow by what they feed'on. 



GROVER CT.F.Via.AND ;^r,r 

If an official, with a duty to the whole pulihc, so 
far forgets his own dip:nity or that of liis ^rcat office 
to court some part of the people by appeals to that 
vanity which, for reasons I could never understand, 
wants to shine with a reflected liL^^ht. rctrihutiou is 
certain to come when power has .c^one, if not before. 
No, I should prefer, for reputation's sake, to take 
my chances, even in the face of wliat lias seemed to 
be a bitter opposition, than to have resorted to 
methods wdiich now seem to be accepted as a neces- 
sary way for moving public opinion. 1 am reallv 
thankful that the efforts to create an unconscious, 
but efifective, censorship of the press never had 
encouragement from me at any point in my public 
career. 

While he held close relations with the editors and 
owners of papers in the smaller cities, he never relaxed 
this attitude of watchfulness in dealing with those in 
New York. He was still more shy of correspondents 
and reporters. He wanted them to have real news, but 
he objected to giving it as a favor which, in its turn, 
should bring him another. As no paper could have any 
claim to represent him, he was equally free from any 
such connection with any writer. He never gave his 
full confidence to any man so related to a metropolitan 
newspaper, whether editor or reporter, and if any man 
so engaged thought he had conquered such a place, he 
was only deceiving himself. 



Ill 

While this unbending attitude was taken both from 
principle and policy, no man could be more appreciative 



362 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

of the care shown by his friends to place fairly before 
the public on high lines those points in his career in 
which he as well as readers were interested. Such 
things must be done unselfishly and without any con- 
sultation with him. If the latter was attempted, he was 
certain to discourage the effort. At such times, he 
would express the strongest appreciation of a friendly 
act, though fearing that the wTiter had been put to 
unusual trouble and really assuming an apologetic atti- 
tude. This was well shown in a letter written to me 
from Marion, Massachusetts, in August, 1890, after 
the publication in a New" York newspaper of a short 
sketch of his career — a piece of work done in the regu- 
lar course of daily work: 

I feel that you will not misunderstand me nor the spirit in 
which I write if I frankly assure you that of all the things I 
have seen written of me and my career I like what you wrote, 
which appeared in The Press, the best. 

I want to tell you, too, how much pleased I was with what 
you did for Mr. Gilder in the matter of the Independent Voter. 
It was wonderfully done, and Gilder is intensely pleased with 
the manner by which you have set words to ideas which he has 
been for a long time anxious to have put in shape. 

Sometimes he would get into a playful mood over 
these things, only the more surely to reveal his grati- 
tude. This was shown in a letter from Gray Gables, in 
July, 1891, when, in acknowledging the receipt of some 
magazines containing a compilation of his sayings, he 
wrote : 

I deeply blushed when I read the Belford article which in- 
troduced the "Wit and Wisdom." I hardly have the face to 
distribute the magazines you so generously sent me. I have 
put one of them off on Gilder and another on a Providence 
friend. I think I shall try Joe Jefferson for one. and I shall 



GROVKR CLEVELAXn 3^.^ 

send some to the members of my fnmilv. After all. I was 
very glad to receive them, and have no doubt that I shall want 
every one of them. 



IV 

It is ahnost impossible, in the present day. with its new 
methods, to comprehend the rie^idity of Mr. Cleveland's 
attitude towards the press, but, without knnwledi^^e of 
it, it would be difficult to understand his life and public 
career. He made opinion, so lone: as lie was active, 
not by courting at every turn the various forms in 
wdiich it found expression, but by maintaining- a per- 
sonal dignity that became him and his place in the 
world: not by antagonizing it, in the last resort, but bv 
giving it something real and substantial upon which tn 
carry his message laden with ideas and principles. 



Legislatures. The other art which lay beyond Grover 
Cleveland's purview was that of managing and direct- 
ing legislative bodies. He did not know how to coax 
or wheedle, and this ability must, of course, lie at the 
foundation of executive control of the course of legis- 
lation and the shaping of its action to the wishes of an 
executive. A governor who asks a powerful boss to 
retire to private life a potent member of a legislative 
body, and boldly invokes his own "personal comfort" as 
the reason for his request, is not likely in bend himself 
to the demands made by the official associates of such a 
man. 

A direful objurgation of Congress is not promotive, 
among its members, of that harmony and atTcction 



364 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

which would naturally command services from such a 
body. If Mr. Cleveland resented the office-seeking pro- 
pensity which has been developed in legislative bodies as 
being what he termed an encroachment upon the pre- 
rogatives of the executive, he felt, in like manner, that 
for a President or governor thus to purchase support 
was, in its turn, no less dangerous and reprehensible as 
an encroachment upon the rights and powers of the 
legislature. He wanted only what belonged to him, and 
hence he looked upon this exchange of powers as a 
direct interference and an ever-present danger. 



VI 

Here, as in the management of newspapers, he was un- 
alterably opposed to the use of the social influence of 
the Executive Mansion for controlling legislation. He 
did not invite men — and, what is far more potent, he did 
not have his wife invite women — to dinners, or lunch- 
eons, or receptions, for the purpose of commanding 
votes for or against some measure pending in Congress, 
however much he was interested in its success or defeat. 
He vetoed more bills than all his predecessors combined, 
but when these messages had been transmitted they 
must take their own course. He forced through Con- 
gress the repeal of the silver-purchase law, but he did it 
by a dogged, tireless insistence that the country was in 
peril, and not by purchase in any of the infinite forms it 
takes in our modern life. 

If the saying, generally attributed to Walpole, that 
"every man has his price" has any truth in it, Mr. Cleve- 
land did not know it, because, with all the great re- 
sources of patronage and social power in his hands, he 



GROVER CLEVELAND 7,rr^ 

did not use them for such purp(>ses. Tt follows that, if 
there are faults in his record in this respect, they were 
to him the pride of his life, and he firmly helieved that 
if he had done his country any service it was in rep^is- 
tering what in many quarters would he deemed dismal 
failures, though to his mind they were numhered with 
his consDicuous successes. 



VII 

The Judiciary. Eew responsihle men have hecn more 
strongly attached to the indej^endence of the courts or 
more solicitous for its maintenance. He said to me 
within a few months of his death : 

The most serious difficulty confronting this coun- 
try is that of maintaining the supremacy of law. and 
this can only be done by inspiring resj)ect for the 
judgments of our courts. All the enemies of our 
society and institutions, and of the dominance in 
them of the civil power, recognize, as if by instinct, 
that if they would break them down or undermine 
them, it can only be done by reducing our courts to 
impotence. If their decrees are not respected, or the 
judges who preside over them are not men ot the 
highest reputation for ability and fairness, then all 
the forces of chscontent will unite in an assault upon 
them. 

To me. nothing can be more deplorable than that 
open criticism of the decisions of courts which, all 
at once, has become fashionable on the part of execu- 
tive officers, whether Presidents, governors, mayors, 
or whatever the rank or position. Tliey are danger- 



366 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

signals, and failure to see them may introduce prac- 
tices which will threaten the independence of the 
courts. 



VIII 

He took great pride in his judicial appointments, coupled 
with regret that the pay of judges was so meagre 
that he had not always been able to command the 
services of lawyers of the first reputation in the com- 
munity. But he persevered until he found men suit- 
able in both learning arid character and that other qual- 
ity, the judicial mind, which, he insisted, was, after all, 
the most vital qualification. When President, he would 
seldom speak of the judges he had appointed, and as far 
as seeking, while in ofiice, to discuss with any one of 
them a case pending in any court, he would as easily 
have cut ofif his right hand. After his retirement he 
followed with interest the decisions of the judges of 
his appointment, and noted their jealous care in uphold- 
ing the principles for which our English race had con- 
tended through so many centuries. 

He overlooked none of the amenities when making 
appointments to the higher courts, consulting the judges 
as to the standing of the men whose names were under 
consideration and ascertaining their acceptance as asso- 
ciates. He also drew freely upon leading lawyers for 
advice. He was thus little given to springing surprises 
in judicial appointments, and that, too, in spite of the 
fact that in this, as in other forms of patronage, he 
chose a good many men who had not been persistently 
pushed upon him. Indeed, he resented pressure more 
strongly in this field than in any other. When it fell 
to his lot to appoint a chief justice of the Court of 



GROVER CLEVELAND 367 

Claims he never considered any other name tlian tliat 
of Charles C. Nott, an associate justice since the organ- 
ization of the court; ])ut lie did not make this nomination 
until convinced that no riuestion could jjossihlv arise 
about the pension when the time for retirement should 
come. 

By reason of tiie hif^h standard he had set. no man 
could have proven more successfully than Mr. C'levelan<l 
both his high reg^ard for the courts, looked upon as in 
stitutions, and his determination to maintain them as 
bulwarks of liberty and progress. If nothing else had 
tended to separate him from some of the leaders of his 
party, in later days, their attitude towards the court > 
would have been amply sufficient to produce this eflfect. 



IX 

The Chief Justice. In 1890, he said one day: 

When I had to assume the responsibility of aj)- 
pointing a chief justice of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, in succession to Morrison R. Waite. 
my first impulse, after the post had been declined by 
John G. Carlisle, then Speaker of the House, was to 
tender the office to James C. Carter, or some otiu-r 
eminent advocate or leader of the bar, or to Mr. 
Phelps, then our Minister to the Court of St. 
James. L^pon consultation with the associate jus- 
tices, I found that some elements, generally over- 
looked, had to be considered. T discovered that tlie 
Supreme Court, like all others, was accustomed to 
get so far behind in its business that, in many cases, 
it took nearly three years to carry important cases 
to it from the State or lower bVderal courts. 



368 GROVER CLEVELAND 

The justices informed me that, as the court could 
not be enlarged, because both public and legal opin- 
ion were opposed to this process, the one thing 
needed was a chief justice who, in addition to high 
legal knowledge and the judicial quality, should also 
be a man of efficiency as a business manager. This 
put the whole question before me in a new light, and 
I delayed the nomination for a time until I could look 
about and find the lawyer who should possess all 
the usual qualifications and also this new one. This 
was a determining factor in the choice of Melville 
W. Fuller, then almost" a stranger. 

I am glad to know that my judgment has been 
justified by results. Within a year, under the new 
management, the business of the court was brought 
so thoroughly under control that the old-time delays 
began gradually to disappear, and I have since had 
the satisfaction of knowing that, while the Chief 
Justice has shown himself an industrious, safe, and 
able judge, he has also commended himself as prob- 
ably the best business manager ever seen at the 
head of a Federal court. He has been able so to sys- 
tematize its work as to eliminate the law's delays so 
far as this is possible. 



CHAPTER XXV 

FRIENDSHIPS — RELIGION 



PERSONAL Friends. In the matter of personal 
friendships, Mr. Cleveland's life was divided into 
two parts almost as distinct as those which sepa- 
rated his early professional and business activities from 
his better known and shorter public career. Chant^e of 
scene, change of idea and purpose, and chan^^e of out- 
look upon the world — all united to make new associa- 
tions a necessity. He iiever consciously forjc^ot or 
neglected his old friends for new ones: but the whole 
process of his life was more nearly allied to a trans- 
formation than to a mere shifting of position and work. 
When he became Governor, he did not take with him 
to Albany one man with whom he had been intimate 
during the years preceding 1883. His private secretary 
was strange to him; he had met only in the most casual 
way his confidential political adviser. lul^ar K. Apgar. 
No friend from Buffalo or elsewhere was j)ref erred for 
an influential place— that is, one that brought him near 
to the Governor or any other. He did take with him. 
both to Albany and Washington, where he became stew- 
ard of the White House, William Sinclair, whom he had 
come to know, in his club, as a trustworthy and etlicienl 

servant. 

24 369 



370 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

No man from Buffalo or from his old home district 
was even seriously considered when it came to choosing- 
his first Cabinet, and, in the second, the appointment of 
Wilson S. Bissell, mainly because he had been an inti- 
mate of many years' standing, was as distinctly politi- 
cal as any other then made. Generally speaking, he had 
a gift for looking past the man of minor importance 
both in the promotion of his own personal success in the 
way of commanding a nomination and seeing the real 
man in power. In New York, this policy had brought 
him right up to Daniel Manning, so, without asking any 
questions about the past at home, this was the man put 
to the front. Every nomination for office had come to 
him with no seeking by himself, and was so largely 
the outcome of his own availability for the place to be 
filled, that his real obligations to associates were always 
minimized. 



II 

He often expressed the opinion that the people of Buf- 
falo scarcely appreciated the delicacy or the difficulty 
of his position after he was drafted into the service of 
the State and the country, believing that, as both Gover- 
nor and President, he would have been more popular in 
the city in which he had so long resided if he had never 
seen it. 

His real friends were most considerate and brought 
no severe or undue pressure upon him, but the smaller 
politicians, the ambitious men, who, though strangers 
to him, thought that, in the accident of geography, their 
time had come, and the others who presumed upon a 
slight acquaintance, flocked to Albany or to Washing- 
ton, and, when they failed to get what they wanted, by 




UK. JoShl'H IJ. IIK^ AM 
Surgcoii-Ceiieral on Governor CIcvclintrs staff, pcrson.il Iricml. iud r«mll) |ih)iK«i 



GROVER CLl'A'I-.LAXI) 371 

way of office or power, tlieir cry of disappointment rent 
the air. Even he himself chd not, perhai)s. fullv appre- 
ciate what it all meant. Tie was hnsy with the larjjjcst 
policies, treatins^ them with the utmost seriousness, 
while each of these pushinq- persons was concentrating" 
attention on his own i)et lamh. the little thini^ nearest his 
mind and heart. 

His real friends in Buffalo did not press, or misunder 
stand, or misrepresent him, and never lost his confidence 
or esteem. Many remained his close advisers on delicate 
questions, in spite of the fact that their contril)uti(ms to 
his later success were no douht small, even when mea- 
sured by their proportion to his personal friends and 
adherents elsewhere. He did not go to Washinq-ton. 
the first time, with many new intimate friendships or 
associations as the result of his two years' active work 
in the politics of the State of New York. Perhai)s it 
would be safe to say that there were not more than two 
of these which grew into anything resembling intimacy: 
Daniel S. Lamont and Dr. Joseph D. Ikyant, in rela- 
tion to whom there was neither variableness nor the 
shadow of turning. 



Ill 

Once in Washington, the circle began to enlarge with 
rapidity. With one exception, every member of Mr. 
Cleveland's Cabinet was a stranger, but before a year 
had passed each was more than an associate: all. with- 
out exception, had become his close friends, and the inti- 
macy, then cemented, was never broken in a smgle in- 
stance. It may not be amiss to say, just at this p<MiU. 
that this was perhaps more true in the case of Mr. 
Cleveland than in that of almost any other man in our 



372 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Presidential history. Every Cabinet official — about 
twenty in number — associated with him in two adminis- 
trations remained not only his stanch supporter but 
his personal intimate. 

He spoke of them always in terms of the warmest 
affection, nor was there one with whose varying for- 
tunes he did not keep himself in close touch. Whenever 
they were mentioned, new interest was added to the con- 
versation, and he would listen far more intently than if 
praise were lavished upon himself. If a question were 
raised about the attitude of one of these Cabinet friends, 
he would always reassure the doubter and emphasize the 
fact that there was no doubt in his mind as to where 
Bayard or Fairchild, Whitney or Endicott, Lamar or 
Vilas, Dickinson or Colman, would be found if matters 
came to a crisis. Late in 1891, when William C. Whit- 
ney's attitude in respect to the third nomination was not 
publicly known, one of his former Cabinet associates 
said to Mr. Cleveland, with some impatience: ''I think 
Whitney ought not to hold back," only to get the reply : 
"Now, do not you give yourself any worry about Whit- 
ney. I have not seen him lately, nor has he sent me any 
word about his position, but I can tell you that he will 
never fail us when the need comes." The sequel is well 
known. It was always this way. When he gave his 
personal confidence he was never betrayed either by in- 
tention or oversight. 

Out of his public life during both administrations, 
there grew up many other interesting personal relations. 
Men who held the rank of assistants, or heads of bu- 
reaus or divisions, made their impressions upon him and 
were afforded many opportunities to emphasize them. 
He not only trusted them because they had a given 
official responsibility, but he sought their help as friends. 



GROVKR CLI-AI-LAXl) 373 

He asked their advice, and in iiimnneraMr instances 
acted upon it, thoiii^h never witli tlieni or any others, 
whatever the rank of the man, witliout satisfying; liim- 
self that the counsel was sound. He took notliin^ for 
granted, so that every man who hrid reachi-d a L^ivcn 
conchision and found sui)port from tlie President was 
confirmed in his opinion and made even more careful 
next time. So far as I coukl ever ohserve or k'arn from 
him, he had no serious differences witli any of his ^uh 
ordinates, akhough there were many whose weakness 
he saw more clearly than anyhody else. lie had a way 
either of doing these men's work himself, or of j^ettinj; 
it done by his assistants without giving them any 
trouble. His patience never failed him. hut. naturally, 
his relations with this type of official were perfunctory, 
not intimate. 



IV 

He formed some close friendships among Senators and 
Representatives of his own party, his famous objurga- 
tion of Congress — when asked whether he had any 
further communication to make— to the contrary not- 
withstanding. He was fair to every element, always 
refusing to delegate power to any kitchen cabinet, or 
to permit a small, exclusive inner circle to be formed 
around him, so that he probably had more real friends 
in both Houses than the average President. In the first 
administration it was not his habit to dictate legislation, 
in spite of the fact that the time came when he had to 
do so, in one case, in order to preserve the national credit 
in a period of crisis. In all that he did, he was so oi>cn 
and frank that even when legislators disliked his policy 
they still admired the man. 



374 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

His public friendships had not the smallest relation 
to official favors. Nothing repelled him more from men 
than to find them insatiate in their demands for office 
for their followers. This was best shown, perhaps, in 
the case of Samuel J. Randall, with whom he had so 
many points in common. But the desire for patronage 
on the part of the ex-Speaker of the House was so 
strong that he could not restrain himself, and so the 
President became indifferent rather than friendly. So 
it was all along down the line. 

During the same time, he formed friendly relations 
with many other men, little known to the public, either 
then or now. I have heard of elaborate correspondence 
with business men about public conditions especially in 
the larger lines of commerce as well as politics — men 
from whom he commanded information otherwise un- 
obtainable. He especially invited suggestions from 
these correspondents and was enabled, by their assist- 
ance, to get a far more intimate idea of conditions than 
would have been possible in any other way. He did not 
often see these men, and he seldom spoke of them or 
their relations to him. Their letters, however, contrib- 
uted to his knowledge — no doubt much to the surprise 
of Cabinet officers and others dealing with him offi- 
cially. These men were seldom known as correspon- 
dents, still less as intimates or advisers. They were 
simply drawn into these relations because, in every case, 
the association was congenial and the men were mutu- 
ally useful to each other. There was no condescension 
or patronage on the one side, and no self-seeking on the 
other. The last-named type was to him impossible as a 
friend, so that, perhaps, never in our history have there 
been fewer persons who could pose as the friend of a 



GROVKR CLF.VKLANn 375 

President or an ex-Prcsidenl. He could un[ make him- 
self cono^enial to anybody of (his type, lie did hate a 
flunky above all other things. 



When he came to New York to live— with more leisure 
on his hands than had been his fortune thitherto— the 
foundations for his future friendships were i)rettv well 
laid, and he had only to build upon them with added ma- 
terial of the same kind. He did not seek out the ji^reat 
lawyers, or the prominent financiers, or the men at the 
head of dominatinj^ railroads or other business enter- 
prises. He became close to some of the members of his 
law firm, and was drawn, in like manner, to some liter- 
ary men. 

He was particularly shy of newspaper men. whether 
in their collective or individual capacity. He had p^rown 
to have a strong aversion to them as a class, althoup^ii 
not, as was generally thought, to individuals among 
them. From the beginning of his pul)lic career he was 
unsympathetic with most of the owners of metroj)olitan 
newspapers — the controlling spirits. As he had had 
some disagreeable experiences with them, he reached the 
conclusion that, in the main, they sought to maintain 
friendly relations in the hope of getting inside informa- 
tion, or interviews, or news. In like manner, he felt no 
attraction for the editors of these i)apcrs. Two or three 
of them pushed themselves upon him with considerable 
persistence, and, from this, tried to make their public 
believe that they were close to him. In all my exj)eri- 
ence with him, I never heard or knew of him asking 



376 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

advice from the proprietor or editor of a New York 
paper. In one or two cases when he had been drawn 
into giving an interview with the representative of one 
paper upon any given question, he would advise with me 
as to the best means of keeping the news from becoming 
exclusive, or for arranging that it should be distributed 
through the press associations or other mediums. 

For a time I pressed him upon the policy of advising 
with the owner and editor of a certain paper, who was 
always trying to reach him in New York, as he had 
done in Albany and Washington, through correspon- 
dents and other representatives, none of whom could 
command even the smallest confidence. He would say: 

"No, it is no use to talk to me about . I know him 

and his motives better than you do. He only wants 
to see me in the hope of getting some exclusive infor- 
mation. Everything will go on agreeably for a time, 
but when he finds that some other paper has obtained 
political or personal news about me or my policies from 
some other source, all the inherent meanness of his 
nature will come out, and he will do with me as he has 
with every one else: betray my confidence and turn 
upon me." Once when the correspondent of the same 
paper had approached me during Mr. Cleveland's ab- 
sence at his country place, and I had again pressed my 
point of view because I believed it good politics, he 
peremptorily declined to be convinced or to comply, and 
wrote : "Besides, I know that will not print any- 
thing about me that will be any satisfaction to myself 

or my friends, no matter how much Mr. may 

attempt to have it so. You will see that I am right in 
this." And he was. 



GROVER CLFA'ia.AXI) 7,yj 



VT 



To friendships of the kind 1 have described, in the main 
with the men who liad come into intimate relations with 
him in pohtics or profession, he .e;-ave the remainder of 
his Hfe, to which must he added tliose g^rowinu: nut <»f 
his Princeton residence and activities. 

He had an unusual capacity for friendship and a need 
for it. Resourceful in q-eneral, there were times when 
he had special need for association witii conij^cnial men; 
but it must be with persons serious-minded as well 
as congenial. He had little small talk, and althouL^^i 
few men could be more j^racious to children, he must 
have been the despair of the li.G:lU. triflinc^ woman, es- 
pecially of that type whose great desire in life is to boast 
of being on speaking terms with some celebrity. With 
sensible, well-balanced women, and especially those of a 
religious nature, he was most happy and sympathetic. 
He did not talk shop or politics, but was full of wi^^e 
observations on questions about which nobody would 
credit him with either interest or knowledge. 

He took a keen interest in all struggling persons, and 
nothing brought him more pleasure than to learn of the 
success of ambitious, industrious young men or women, 
or more pain than to hear stories of failure and discour- 
agement. The death of a friend, or a friend's wife or 
intimate, was plainly more painful to him than to ahnost 
any person I have known. He had a horror of death, 
especially when it came to those in the full strength of 
years, or in the midst of hitherto unreciuited struggle, 
although his feeling about it for himself was of the 
grim, determined character that he showed in his daily 
struggles. He liked life, but he wanted it in order to 
complete with credit whatever work might be in liim. 



3/8 RECOLLECTIONS OF 



VTT 

If I could sum up his character, I should say that, al- 
though he had this capacity for friendship, he was not 
greatly attracted by the mere passing or idle acquain- 
tance. He was genial because he was kindly, and free 
and thoughtful in the gift of himself, though exacting 
little from others; he gave his confidence slowly and to 
few, but with unusual freedom, and he seldom withdrew 
it ; and used much discretion as to the kind or order of 
information confided to diflferent persons within his 
circle. To some — those who knew him best and them- 
selves had an all-round knowledge — he would give after 
their kind. With the companions of his sports, who 
were almost uniformly drawn from the like-minded 
among the various circles already classified, he would 
manifest a jollity, a lightness of touch wholly in keeping 
with the occasion. 

To some purely social acquaintance, politics — except 
in its most obvious facts and inferences — would be 
taboo, while to other friends of a diflferent type little 
else would enter into account — seldom in its mechanical 
features, but in the higher ultimate aims and ends. As 
few men had had larger opportunities to know a variety 
of characters : so, perhaps, none ever took more advan- 
tage of them in order that he might make his friend- 
ships pleasing and profitable to others as well as agree- 
able to himself. 

VIII 

It has never been fully appreciated how closely Mr. 
Cleveland was drawn, in personal friendship, to those 
with whom his association was purely political. Evi- 



GROVICR CLEX'KLAN'O 7^y<) 

dence of this was furnished hy many letters wliicli came 
to my attention when the accumulations of the I^xecu- 
tive Mansion were examined in the early sprinp^ of 
1892. Generally speaking-, IVTr. Clevclatid read these 
letters with care and then ruthlessly destroyed them. 
But wdien he came to two of them, he handed them to 
me with the message : 

The time may come when those will he useful in 
giving the world some idea of the relations which 
my official advisers bore to me, in spite of the fact 
that nearly every one of them was an entire stranger 
when we came together. 



These letters have been preserved and arc herewith 
appended. The first is a birthday greeting from the late 
William C. Whitney, Secretary of the Navy, written in 
the year before the end of their official relations. It is 
as follows, and, coming from a man of a type little given 
to compliments, will be of interest : 

March iS. 1888. 
1 73 1 1 Street. 

Dear Mr. President: 

I wish I had something to send you besides my god.l wishes. 
but, in the absence of :\Iadame. who is thoughtful. I have n't. 
T know you don't want anything, but I should hkc to mark the 
day. I wish you many more anniversaries like this, when you 
are able to look back upon another year of successful work m 
the midst of most trying responsibilities. 

I have never known greater patience than you have, nor 
greater courtesy in your bearing to those who struggle along 
with you. and I hope you mav bv and by have your reward m 
the opportunity to think of yourself and your comfort, and 



38o RECOLLECTIONS OF 

you will then take pleasure in the reflection that you never 
laid down the banner when it was given you to carry. 

My best wishes for a successful and a happy future. 

Yours most sincerely, 
To W. C. Whitney. 

The President. 



The second was written by William F. Vilas, a man of 
wholly different type, full of the fervor of the orator 
as well as that of the friend, and was in the nature of 
a farewell at the close of the first term in the Presi- 
dency : 

Department of the Interior, 

Washington, March i, 1889. 
My dear Mr. President: 

With this will go to-morrow my letter of resignation, just 
written this evening, of the post I hold in your official family, 
now about breaking up. I can, in admissible propriety I sup- 
pose, place by it on official record but a brief, though I wish 
it a clear, testimony of my esteem and devotion. But I will 
not deny my desire to write more to you upon the occasion 
of it ; I mean no bubbling of emotion, but thoughts long and 
often meditated. 

I was a stranger to you when you were first named to the 
American people as the candidate of our party to be their 
President ; and was little less so when, by your generous con- 
fidence, I was placed in near official relationship to your per- 
son and duties. Profoundly believing that the safety of our 
political institutions demanded dislocation of the grasp which 
the long unchecked dominion of our political enemy had 
secured upon our government, and having long shared, though 
in obscure station, the vain struggle of Democracy for relief, 
it was but natural that my thought was fixed almost wholly 
upon the chances and the advantage of that success, rather 
than upon the person through whom it was to be and was 



GROVER CLEVELAND 381 

achieved, and that I saw in you the promising can<h(latc more 
than the noble man. 

I have long since perceived how differently the wisdom of 
Providence ordered the affairs of this people, and how weakly 
I misconceived. A close witness now for four years, I have 
learned your vast powers of mind, your strength of char- 
acter, your high principles, your patriotic devotion, your con- 
stancy and virtue. The qualities of a splendid manhood re- 
quire the opportunities afforded by disaster, as well as stormy 
trials, for their full illustration. I did not, I feel sure, need 
these later hours for my just understanding of it, but I Ijc- 
lieve that, with the people of this country, they have been 
helpful to exalt your character; and that, although defeat has 
been our bitter portion, your carriage in this scene has already 
begun to work, and will continue to excite, a juster percep- 
tion on their part of your title to their admiration and esteem. 

I abate no jot of faith in our countrymen. If false report 
for a time mislead them, they still are generous and honest 
in spirit, and when the truth comes to them their justice will 
not want a generous expression in action. May heaven give 
you continued life and vigor, and you shall not await the page 
of History for a triumphant recognition of the untiring lalK)rs. 
the faithful zeal, the vast blessing in accomplishment and in 
example and lesson by which you have distinguished your ad- 
ministration of their exalted trust. 

But I cannot subjoin what I wish for myself to say without 
some emotion, nor risk much. You have so generously off- 
set my sincerity of purpose against my shortcomings in jwr- 
formance, so kindly considered me in all defects and in all my 
life here, and made your friendship so greatly a source of jov 
as well as pride, that in the affectionate attachment which 
warmly glows amidst respect and admiration lies all the pain 
I have experienced upon any personal grounds in contemplating 
the change before us. I treasure *the pain with the affection. 
May the day come when the one shall (lisai)])car in tlie joy of 

the other. 

In hope, esteem, and friendship. 

Faithfully yours. 

William V. Vilas. 



382 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

IX 

Religion. Mr. Cleveland seldom talked about his 
religious convictions. This was due, in some degree, to 
the reticence of the gentleman on this lofty and personal 
question, but, in the main, to the absolute, undoubting 
character of his faith. In all my acquaintance, whether 
with men or women, powerful or humble, educated or il- 
literate, I have never found a person in whom this quality 
was more strongly developed. He so resented any light- 
ness of treatment of religious opinions and problems by 
anybody that no one, whatever the relations might be, 
would presume to repeat views which questioned or be- 
littled the Christian faith of any person. 

He was the ingrained Presbyterian, of the old-fash- 
ioned type. I do not believe that the Higher Criticism, so 
called, had even the smallest influence upon his thought 
or opinion. The later knowledge, so far as he knew it or 
cared for its existence, only strengthened him in his 
view. I have often heard him say: 

The Bible is good enough for me : just the old book 
under which I was brought up. I do not want notes, 
or criticisms, or explanations about authorship or 
origin, or even cross-references. I do not need or / 
understand them, and they confuse me. ( 

So far as I could discover — in those years when the 
springs of his life were laid open to me, and his opinions 
upon the matters in which he was interested would come 
out at one time or another — he had never questioned the 
truth or soundness of those fundamental teachings 
which had come down to him through generations of 
orthodox clergymen, on the one side, and of pious 




^^J^r^-***^ 



GROVER CLFAT.LAXD 3S3 

women on the other. Their faith, once dehvcrcd to the 
saints, was his faith, their deductions were his. the fhitics 
that had heen theirs were ln"s duties, the conscience 
which, in thcni. had heen dcvcloijcd even to exap^jjera- 
tion, was his conscience, and the hii^her influences -that 
had entered into their hves were those which moved him 
and made him what he was in liimself a^ well as in liis 
relations to the world 



His reliction was not one which, took much account (.f 
profession or of mere outward form, hut suj^plied its 
needs and renewed itself from its own inherent sources. 
He was tolerant, in the hig-hest degree, of those varieties 
of opinion which enter into tlie outward work of the 
Christian faith. Perhaps no man in our history was 
ever more strongly impressed with the feeling that our 
institutions were founded upon our religion, in all their' 
essential features. He was once much interested in a 
lecture or address delivered hy Justice Brewer and in 
the arguments adduced by him to show that this is a 
Christian nation. The tone of his opinion then found 
expression in these general terms : 

It would not he in existence and it could not h(^pe 
to live if it were not Christian in every fibre. Tliat 
is what has made it and what will save it in all its 
perils. Whenever we have departed from this con 
ception of life and thought, nationality has sutTered. 
character has declined, and difhculties have in 
creased. While slavery remained we could not hope 
fullv to work out Christian ideals, and whenever we 
overlook the fact that "righteousness exalteth a na- 
tion," we must pay the penalty. 1 welcome i)coples 



384 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

from every land, and of every form of faith, but I 
firmly believe that, as we have done in our political 
ideas, we shall assimilate them to our religion, by 
demonstrating — as Christianity at its best estate has 
always done — its superiority and its power. In its 
essentials, we stand by our faith, exercise patience, 
show charity, tolerate all beliefs, but always with the 
conviction that our own will so conquer in the end as 
to extend its influence, more and more, over men in 
every part of the world. / 



XI 

He was one of the strongest advocates I have ever 
known of the missionary cause. His favorite sister and 
her husband returned from a long absence in the mis- 
sionary field in India soon after he himself had become 
a great public character. From early training and asso- 
ciation, as well as from the tendency that was bred in 
the bone, he had acquired an almost intuitive knowledge 
of what foreign missions had done. Personal associa- 
tion had enlarged both the opportunity for obtaining ac- 
curate knowledge and his interest, and had confirmed 
his opinion that right, duty, policy, nay, necessity and 
fate, were behind this obedience to the command, "Go ye 
into all the world and preach the gospel to every crea- 
ture." 

Once or twice during his career he subjected himself 
to severe criticism by public utterances emphasizing the 
importance of recognizing our religious duty towards 
the scattered communities in the remote parts of our 
own country. He did not resent intelligent comment or 
criticism upon this or any other question; but he could 



GROVER CLF.VELAXI) 385 

not understand how clergymen or well-meaning persons 
could misrepresent his attitude towards missions, or the 
spread of the Christian faith, wlx^thcr in the foreign or 
the domestic field, and tax him with want of knowledge 
or absence of interest. \\'iien this cliargo was made by 
men who were obviously moved by political or sectarian 
prejudice, he regretted and overlooked it ; but when it 
came from men who not only ought to know better but 
did know better, his contempt was mingled with i)ity for 
the sordid motives from which such sentiments pro- 
ceeded. 

I have never known a man with so low an opinion of 
sensational preaching, and perhaps the political, or, as 
he ought rather to be termed, the partizan, preacher was 
his pet aversion. No matter what his topic, or wh<» 
might be his favorite or victim, he was, to Mr. Cleveland, 
next to a moral outlaw. 

Nor was this" attitude the result of personal feeling or 
resentment. As it was the outcome of an attachment 
to principle as strong as his belief in his religion or 
his political convictions it was fundamental. If every 
preacher in the country had taken occasion, upon every 
Sunday in the year, to preach about Mr. Cleveland 
with the strongest commendation, it would not have 
changed his opinion that the impulse was unchristian 
and the effect pernicious. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

SOME CONTRIBUTED ESTIMATES 



THERE were few men in whose judgment Mr. 
Cleveland had greater confidence, or to whom he 
was more communicative upon those large issues 
of politics and administration which had been confided 
to him, than Mr. John P. Irish of California. In reply 
to my request for some opinions by or about Mr. Cleve- 
land, and for his own impressions, Mr. Irish sent me 
the following interesting letter, under date of July 22, 

1908: 

I 

I WAS with Mr. Cleveland when the excitement broke 
like a storm over the country, because of his order for 
the return of the battle-flags taken during the Civil War. 
I asked him if he recalled Senator Sumner's speech op- 
posing the placing in the Capitol of any permanent me- 
morial or work of art to exult over the vanquishment of 
the South. He asked me to find the record and have it 
published. I did so, including the resolution of the 
Massachusetts Legislature bitterly censuring Sumner 
for the speech, and the subsequent expunging of that 
resolution while the Senator was dying. 

The next morning the papers were full of denuncia- 
tion of the President and published a statement by Gen- 
eral Lucius Fairchild of Wisconsin, to the efifect that he 
had received the first notice of the President's battle- 

386 



GROVER CLEVELAND 387 

flag order from his old comrade in arms. General Drum. 
Adjutant-General of the United States Army. When I 
called Mr. Cleveland's attention to this, he drew from 
his desk an official letter from Drum, written some 
months before, recommending- that the President issue 
the order for the return of the captured fla^s, as an act 
of amity towards the South. T was astonished hy this 
revelation, and said, "Of course you will publish Drum's 
letter." The President simply said, "No. The order 
was mine. I do not wish to divide the responsibility. T 
have exainined the matter and find that I had no lethal 
authority to issue such an order, and I have recalled it." 
Then, with a look of pain, he said: 

See how I am misjud^G^ed. It is charc^ed in the 
press that I had no sympathy with the Union armies. 
When the war came there were three men of ricfhtinc: 
age in our family. We were poor, and mother and 
sisters depended on us for support. As two of us 
had enlisted in the Union army, it was necessary for 
the third to stay at home for the support of the 
family. T abided by my duty to the helpless women. 
Later on, I was drafted and borrowed a thousand 
dollars to hire a substitute, and it took years of hard 
work to repay that loan. So, of three men of fight- 
ing age, our family furnished three recruits t"or the 
Union army, and I would have been a monster if T 
had no sympathy with that cause for which my 
brothers were fighting and for which T had sacri- 
ficed. 

The picture was Homeric, and the lesson it taught 
should be remembered as a check ui)on the reckless abuse 
of our public men. 



388 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

II 

His judgment of men and insight into character ex- 
ceeded that of any man I have known in pubhc Hfe. I 
saw him meet a party of poHticians from a large West- 
ern city, who had called to press an appointment they 
wanted made. They were the bosses of their city, well 
groomed, persuasive and plausible, and presented their 
case with exquisite address and art. Mr. Cleveland lis- 
tened with politeness and patience, but I saw a singular 
aversion in his aspect. 

When they finished he declined to make the appoint- 
ment. Within a year from that time every politician 
in that persuasive group was either in jail or a fugitive 
from justice, for crimes committed in the municipal 
administration of their city, and the man for whom they 
sought appointment was discredited. 

Ill 

Mr. Tilden told me, in January, 1885, that men were 
wondering at Mr. Cleveland's rapid rise in public life, 
and said, "It is because he has the genius of leadership 
and the spirit of righteousness." When I asked him 
for his definition of a leader, he replied: "A leader is a 
man who always knows what to do next and is never 
caught in a corner with no resources beyond." 

Continuing, Mr. Tilden said: "Since the Civil War 
the Democratic party has required that continuity of 
policy that can be found only under a leader with a 
physical future. Leadership came to Mr. Seymour and 
to me in our old age, when our physical future was 
abridged. If the party now follow Mr. Cleveland where 
he leads, its return to power will have continuity and 
permanency." 




^>^ 



GROVER CLEVELAND ,589 

The discussion of Mr. Cleveland's selection of mcni 
bers of his Cabinet reminds nie of a conversation with 
Mr. Tilden, which discloses on his part a mistake in 
judgment. After the election of 1S76. when it was 
known that he had been fairly chosen as President and 
had received a popular majority. Mr. Tilden considered 
the future with great gravity. He said the trouble 
would be found in the lack of men in the Democratic 
party fit for Cabinet positions by reason of want of 
training amongst our public men in executive duties. 
He said the leaders of the party had had legislative ex- 
perience only, and that we were entirely safe in having 
Congressional leadership, and our difficulties would ap- 
pear through having no men trained in executive func- 
tions. 

When Mr. Cleveland was elected he called into his 
Cabinet men of the greatest experience and highest 
qualities, who proved to be admirably qualified for 
executive duties, and our Congressional leadershij^ 
[aside from William L. Wilson] in both of his terms 
proved to be such a miserable failure that it became 
responsible for the permanent wrecking of the party. 
It turned out that our legislative leaders were so fixed 
in the habit of opposition that they used it against 
their own administration and robbed it of its natural 
and legitimate leadership. It was this that left Mr. 
Cleveland and his Cabinet standing alone: on one side 
meeting the natural and legitimate antagonism of the 
Republican party, and on the other faced by the bitter. 
foolish, and almost criminal opposition of Democratic 
leaders in Congress. 

IV 

This painful situation, however, was the means of 
bringing into action the highest qualities in Mr. Cleve- 



390 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

land's character, than which there have been no higher 
nor greater in the history of our pubhc men. To this he 
owes his great and unassailable position in the world's 
history. The American President who bravely meets 
the great crises of peace, involving the preservation of 
the public credit and going direct to the material inter- 
est of every citizen, high and low, executes a more dif- 
ficult duty than is put upon any President in time of 
war. In war, the patriotic sentiments and unselfish im- 
pulses of the people are in high activity, and they are 
ready without question to back up every position taken 
by the President, and to make every sacrifice he de- 
mands of them, and his task is made easy compared with 
that which was put upon Mr. Cleveland. 

In his case, it was easy to persuade the people that 
they were injured in their fortunes by the policy which 
was their sole defense against wide-spread ruin. It 
was a policy which maintained the sacredness of con- 
tracts and stood for honesty in every financial transac- 
tion, great and small. That policy, indorsed by the elec- 
tion of 1896, after the greatest campaign of education 
known in our politics, carried on by our Gold Democracy 
and the Republican allies, was the foundation of the 
prosperity which followed, and must be the foundation 
of any real and general prosperity which the country is 
to know in the future. 



II 

Another man who came into close relations with Mr. 
Cleveland during the whole of his larger political career, 
both in the Presidency and out, was the Hon. William 



GROVKR ri.F.VKI.AXD 391 

U. Hcnsel, formerly Atlorney-Gcncral <»f IViinsylvani.-i. 
When I told him that I was wriliiiq; my rccolkrtioiis of 
the ex-President, he offered to send me some of his 
experiences and observations. Among thcin were tlic 
folllovving: 

I 

Among my earliest personal recollections of Mr. Cleve- 
land is an occasion when I saw him. durini,^ the first of 
his Presidential campaigns, in r.rooklyn. at a "harhe- 
cue." Of course a barbecue in lirooklyn is an absurdity. 
But the Democrats over there had heard much and rear! 
more of barbecues, and they must make an ox roast. I 
certainly could not now fix the day when it was held, 
nor find the place; but I very distinctly remember that 
many thousands of voters hungered nuich to get a bite 
of roast ox, and much more to get a sight of the candi- 
date. 

He and a score of others, including myself, found 
escape from the tremendous poj)ular pressure in the 
second story of a frame building on some sort of an 
exhibition ground. When he showed himself to the 
multitude at an upper window, the individuals who com- 
posed the eager throng packed closer together until 
there was scarcely anything to be seen except their heads 
and faces. I do not think that he had ever seen so many 
people assembled — certainly never so dense a crowd. It 
affected him very much, and in an almost broken voice 
he said: "I never before realized what was expressed 
in the phrase 'a sea of faces' — look at it; as beautiful 
and yet as terrible as the waves of the ocean." 

IT 

After Mr. Cleveland had been duly elected President 
by the Electoral College and had resigned the uflficc of 



392 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

Governor of New York and retired from the Executive 
Mansion at Albany to a modest residence on a side 
street, I was his informal guest at several meetings with 
the late Edgar K. Apgar, who had his confidence in a 
large degree. Apgar — with whom I was on terms of 
close intimacy and had campaigned frequently — once 
told me that when the Flower-Slocum canvas for Gov- 
ernor was fairly "on" in 1882, and the late Secretary 
Manning was much perplexed over it, he (Apgar) be- 
gan to look over the State for a compromise candidate. 
His extensive reading of the State newspapers led him 
to Mayor Cleveland of Buffalo. He had been much im- 
pressed by Mr. Cleveland's message vetoing a municipal 
appropriation for the celebration by the G. A. R. of 
Decoration Day, because, in the expressive language of 
the late Judge Black, it was "ag'in' the law." 

When his name was first mentioned by Apgar as an 
"available" candidate, Mr. Manning, then Chairman of 
the Democratic State Committee, was so absolutely un- 
acquainted with him that he asked, "Who 's Grover 
Cleveland?" But at Mr. Manning's request Apgar in- 
vestigated the matter quietly and "sized him up," so that 
in less than a year Mr. Cleveland was Governor of New 
York, and within three years Mr. Manning was Secre- 
tary of the Treasury in his Cabinet at Washington. 

Ill 

Those nights in the rooms of the President-elect with 
Apgar were "noctes ambrosianae." I never afterwards, 
in more than twenty years' acquaintance, saw him with 
better opportunities to study and know the man Cleve- 
land. I recall the great quantities of things, mostly 
trash, sent to him — and of course to every President- 
elect — by political and personal admirers many of them 



GROVER CLEVELAND t,()t, 

most barefaced solicitors of official favor. For instance. 
"Unknown" — who no doubt intended later to disclose 
himself— sent a brass-hooi)ed ten--,allon cask of rum. 
There was a great majolica china DenifKratic rooster 
from Kansas; a live alli.c^ator from Florida; a stuffed 
wolf from Dakota; and codfish from ^Lassachusetts. 

There was the picture of a Western youth with his 
best girl leaning lovingly on his shoulder, accompanied 
by a letter declaring that, to complete their hajipiness 
and assure their marriage, they only needed the cer- 
tainty of appointment to a designated fourth-class post- 
mastership. I remember very distinctly Mr. Cleveland's 
expression of sympathy for the poor girl whose life's 
hopes hung on that rather nincompoopish lover. 

The one gift to which he attached significance was 
from an illiterate, but apparently independent, negro in 
Atlanta, who sent him "with Gawd's blessin' " a rabbit's 
left hind foot, with the assurance that the donor had 
voted for him and had no favors to ask. 

IV 

Early in his administration he was influenced to appoint 
to a prominent Federal office a man who \u his youth had 
committed a felonious indiscretion and fled from an in- 
dictment which, during twenty-five years of later up- 
right life, he foolishly neglected to have disposed of. 
After his name was sent to the Senate, but before con- 
firmation, the old scandal was revived, and Cleveland 
withdrew the nomination, with some indignation at 
those who had* procured it. I joined them in trying to 
get him to view the circumstances more leniently, but he 
had in mind some imposition practised upon him in the 
West, and he was obdurate. 

Subsequently the object, first of his official favor and 



394 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

later of his wrath, had the indictment nolle-prossed, but 
the President would not hear of his reappointment, and 
he had to submit to a local vindication by triumphant 
election to an important county office. I mention the in- 
cident mainly to illustrate Mr. Cleveland's remarkable 
memory. A few years ago, on a visit to him, at Prince- 
ton, something suggested this incident of 1885, when he 
related it in minutest detail and recalled every circum- 
stance of the offense charged against my friend and his 
nominee. 

V 

During his first term he explained to me on one occa- 
sion with much detail his views on the executive pre- 
rogative of his pardoning power, and how, when he 
became Governor of New York, he had broken up the 
traditional practice of the executive permitting ''pardon 
clerks" to brief the papers submitted and to suggest 
what should be the disposition of the applications. "If 
there is anything," he said, ''that I understand and that 
I examine, consider, and determine wholly myself, it is 
the subject of pardons." Years later, during his second 
term, I was much interested in the pardon of a Federal 
convict. It was refused. I found the papers docketed, 
briefed, negatively recommended, and "O. K.'d" by the 
President. 

I went directly to him, and appealed to him on the 
peculiar circumstances of the case. The only and most 
affectionate son of an aged mother had gone wrong. 
He was sentenced to seven years in the penitentiary. 
She never knew of his guilt or his disgrace, but was 
under the impression that he was gone on a long jour- 
ney. After three years' absence she became apprehen- 
sive she would soon die and begged piteously "to see 
Tom." I told the President all this, and more, without 



GROVER CLEVELAND 395 

effecting- niuc]i. TMiially 1 appealed to his earlier self- 
confidence, that he understood pardon cases better than 
the clerks in the Attorney-Generars oflice, and he ad- 
mitted that he had refused my applicati(^n somewhat j)cr- 
functorily and invited me to breakfast with him the next 
day. After we had ended lie rather abrnptlv said: 
"That fellow's sentence will be half served in Aui^ust. 
If you can keep his mother alive until then. I '11 cut his 
term in two." I was o^lad to accept the conditions. Tom 
came out of the ])enitentiary in Au,q;ust. and his mother 
lingered on into September, never suspect ini,'- that her 
son had been a convict. lie is long since dead, but his 
saint was always St. Grover. 



in 

Colonel Hilary A. Herbert, Secretary of the Navy 

in the second Cabinet and also close to Mr. Cleveland 

during the first administration when the naval policy 

was fixed, has sent me the following recollections and 

impressions : 

I 

When Mr. Cleveland became President in 1S85 just 
twenty years had elapsed since the close of the Civil 
War. The battle between the Mcrriuiac and the Moni- 
tor at Hampton Roads had revolutionized naval war- 
fare. European nations turned at once to new all-steel 
vessels. Lnprovements in shii)s and guns were now 
being made year after year. Our own navy, that had 
accomplished so much in its battles for the Union, was 
practically obsolete. Its wooden vessels were rotting. 
Even its iron monitors were outclassed and of obsolete 



396 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

types. Under President Arthur, Mr, Chandler, as Sec- 
retary of the Navy, had laid down two steel cruisers and 
a gunboat now well on toward completion. Two other 
vessels had been authorized by Congress just before 
Mr. Arthur went out— altogether, a small but credit- 
•able beginning of a modern navy for the United States. 

Mr. Cleveland and his Secretary, Mr. Whitney, in- 
tended to lay broadly the foundations of this new navy, 
not only building ships but providing an armor plant 
and gun plants, so that the United States might in due 
time take its proper place among the naval powers of 
the world. All this was accomplished, but at the outset 
difficulties were presented. 

First, the Democratic party, lately come into conse- 
quence in the House of Representatives, had taken a 
firm stand for economy in all expenditures. It was an 
opposition party, and had fought vigorously against 
large appropriations for the navy, especially those called 
for by Secretary Robeson, for refitting and rebuilding 
of old ships. This anti-naval bias, really a new feature 
in Democratic politics, had to be regarded. 

It was my lot to be made Chairman of the House Com- 
mittee on Naval Affairs, when the Cleveland idea of 
rebuilding the navy was to be inaugurated, and to me 
the whole question was new. Upon my appointment a 
newspaper "down in Maine" commented, not unfavor- 
ably in other respects, but called attention to the fact that 
I had never previously served on the committee of which 
I was now made the head, adding, with pardonable exag- 
geration, that "the new Chairman of the Committee on 
Naval Affairs did not know the difference between a 
man-of-war and a wash-tub"! My task with my own 
party was not an easy one, and it soon became apparent 
that to "go sure" it was necessary to "go slow." 



i 



GROVER CLEVELAND 397 

The first bill reported from the committee carried 
eleven ships, big and little. The j)ractice then was t() 
pas? a rule fixing a day to consider an important bill 
and limiting the time for discussion. When such a rule 
for the bill was moved, not only did leading Democrats 
from the West object to the day suggested, as interfer- 
ing wnth their bills, etc., etc., but it became quite evident 
that the Republicans, though previously counting them- 
selves as friends of the navy, were very reluctant to sec 
Democrats figuring as its champions. Mr. Reed, their 
leader, objected to taking up the rule for consideration, 
on the ground that time enough was not allowed in the 
rule for debate on "so important a bill." So many ob- 
jections were made from time to time that the com- 
mittee eventually withdrew the original bill, and re- 
reported it, leaving off two of the proposed ships. For 
this bill, which carried nine vessels, big and little, and 
contained other important provisions, after many cap- 
tious objections from different quarters, a day was 
finally fixed, and on July 24, 1886, it came to a vote. 
Mr. Reed, Mr. Boutelle, and the body of the Republi- 
cans voted against it, ostensibly because it did not carry 
all the vessels contained in the original bill, to the rule 
for considering which Mr. Reed had so strenuously ob- 
jected. The Democrats mustered strength enough to 
pass it, but the tribulations thus encountered showed 
that some easier method of getting up bills for increas- 
ing the navy was desirable. 

At the next session, after a consultation between the 
WTiter and the Speaker, Mr. Carlisle agreed to appoint, 
to preside over the Committee of the Whole when the 
Naval Appropriation Bill should come up, some Demo- 
crat, if one could be found, who agreed with the writer 
that a provision for new vessels would be in order on 



398 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

the bill. As Mr. McCreary of Kentucky concurred in 
this view, he was therefore appointed Chairman of the 
Committee of the Whole and overruled the point of 
order, though it was vigorously pressed ; new ships were 
put into the appropriation bill, and so from that day to 
this the new navy has had plain sailing in the House of 
Representatives. The point of order has occasionally 
been made, but the precedent of 1886 has always been 
followed. 

The Cleveland administration was not in undue 
haste; its policy was a steady growth of the new navy 
on solid foundations, and as all partizan debate was 
carefully avoided, opposition soon practically ceased on 
both sides of the chamber. Appropriation bills con- 
taining new vessels, docks, etc., were sometimes passed 
without debate, after the briefest possible explanation 
from the chairman. During these four years Mr. 
Whitney, as Secretary of the Navy under Mr. Cleve- 
land, not only laid down new vessels, but built docks, 
established a great gun plant at Washington, domesti- 
cated the manufacture of armor at Bethlehem, and thus 
made easy the pathway of his successor. 

II 

Mr. Cleveland as a candidate for the Presidency in 
1892 was the most striking civilian figure that had occu- 
pied that position since the days of Abraham Lincoln. 
He attracted notably the attention of students of his- 
tory, and, though not college-bred, college professors 
and young men fresh from their studies had turned to 
him in a wonderful way. After all the political va- 
garies of the preceding twenty-five years, here was a 
man about whom nobody could make any mistake. He 
had been brave enough to send to Congress his cele- 



GROVER CLEVELAND 399 

brated tariflf message of 1887. tliou,G:li lie saw that it 
might, as it midoul)tcdly did. defeat liim for reelection. 
So, in 1892, his renewed declaration, shortly before the 
convention, for the gold standard, might defeat his rc- 
nomination; l)ut he gave it f^rth against the jirotcst of 
friends. All knew as well then as now that a choice of 
Mr. Cleveland would be a declaration for (i) old 
fashioned Democratic ideas of the Constitution; (2) 
economies; (3) merit as the ultimate test for appoint- 
ment to office; (4) tariff reform; (5) the gold stan- 
dard. 

His party, knowing that he stood for all these things, 
nominated him; and because the people also stood firmly 
for them, they elected him. Tf llie Democrats had 
supported him faithfully, representing as he did the 
majority sentiment, there can be no doubt that his party 
would have continued in power. But Democrats in Con- 
gress failed to hold up his hands. Many oi them, in- 
deed, seemed to feel really disappointed and aggrieved 
because their President did not go back on his pledges, 
and, so feeling, they occupied their time in manceuvering 
for political position in a campaign that was to come 
off in 1896. 

\Mien Congress assembled in 1893. unfortunately for 
Mr. Cleveland, the country was in the throes of a i)anic. 
The money question was paramount, and though Mr. 
Cleveland's views on the sul)ject were well kn^wn. many 
of his followers were unwilling to look upon his election 
as a settlement of the matter. Both Democrats and 
Republicans had for years been coquetting with the free 
silver craze. Both parties were divided <mi it ; the plat- 
forms and the acts of both had been equivocal, all cater- 
ing to the new fad. which was that the United States, 
unaided bv other nations, could hold up all the silver 



400 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

in the world on a par with gold. Already, increasing 
silver was chasing gold out of our Treasury, the panic 
having met Mr. Cleveland at the very threshold of his 
new term. Congress refused to give the legislative re- 
lief he asked for, and the President was therefore forced 
to rely entirely upon his own resources. He restocked 
the Treasury with gold, by his sale of bond issues one 
after another; by this means alone he restored confi- 
dence, and the panic was fast fading away as the Presi- 
dential election of 1896 approached. 

Inevitably in that campaign the question of standards 
was to be settled. Which of the two great parties was 
to declare for gold? Logically, it should have been the 
Democrats. Their leader had been the champion of the 
gold standard. He had been elected as such, and had 
"made good" in the face of that terrible financial crisis. 
But this was not to be. The Democracy in the platform 
of 1896 repudiated their captain, thus leaving the field 
free to the Republicans, who now for the first time 
adopted a gold platform and thereupon came into power, 
and therefore enjoyed the prestige of that wave of 
prosperity which, prior to the election, had already set 
in and was certain to continue, no matter whether Wil- 
son or Dingley tariff should prevail. 

Ill 

The new and fateful political alignments of 1896 are 
well illustrated by the following ludicrous incident 
which a trustworthy friend tells me he had directly from 
Senator Hanna: 

Mr. Hanna, it is now well known, had in 1896, long 
before the convention, made certain Mr. McKinley's 
nomination. The platform on which he was to be placed 
was of course to pronounce for a high tariff, for which 
Mr. McKinley stood, no matter what it might say about 



GROVER CLEVELAND 401 

money. On that question tlic antoccdcnls of N!r. 
Hanna's candidate were for free silver. I'his is tlie 
story of Mr. Hanna, who jT^rcatly enjoyed the luiinor of 
the situation. What lie had been especially anxious 
about was McKinley and a hi.G:h tariff. As to the i)lank 
on coinage he had no definite plan. I [e simply agreed 
at the convention to a stnaight^out declaration for the 
gold standard, and then consented to act as Chairman 
of the National Committee. As such his first task was 
to get his party everywhere into line with the new plat- 
form. 

Among others, Mr. B , a Republican candidate 

for Congress in a Southern mountain district, was mak- 
ing free silver speeches. Mr. Hanna wrote to him, call- 
ing attention to the platform and telling him he must 

"line up" with the party. Mr. B , who is a man of 

character, made a characteristic reply. It was that he 
did not claim to know much about the coinage question, 
or to be an orator ; that before he began his canvass, 
and when in search of information, he had happened 
on a certain speech made by a certain Mr. McKinley to 
the Earmers' Alliance in Ohio. This struck him as the 
finest thing he had ever seen, so he had memorized the 
arguments and had been making them to his people. 
But, he said, as a good Republican he recognized the 
right of the party to dictate, and would now set out on 
the new tack. And then he added. "If William changes 
again, please let me know by telegraph." 

IV 

During the latter part of Mr. Cleveland's administra- 
tion the relations between our Government and that of 
Spain were critical. There was among our people a 
wide-spread sympathy with the Cuban in'^urgents. re- 
flected in unmistakable terms by many speeches in the 

26 



402 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

halls of Congress and manifested also in frequent fili- 
bustering expeditions. Mr. Cleveland was intent upon 
maintaining our neutrality, and consequently we studi- 
ously kept our war-ships away from Cuban ports, which 
they visited freely in ordinary times. 

During the winter of 1896-97 (possibly earlier). 
General Fitzhugh Lee, our Consul-General, visited 
Washington and made a strong appeal to me to send to 
and keep in the harbor of Havana a war-ship to aid him 
in protecting American citizens, as well as to furnish 
a refuge for them and our, officials in case of an out- 
break. I refused on the ground that it was not custom- 
ary or practicable to afford protection to American citi- 
zens in the ports of a power of the rank of Spain by a 
single war-ship, and that, under the circumstances, the 
sending of a single ship, and still more of a fleet, would 
be taken by the insurgents as an expression of sympathy 
and regarded by Spain as a threat, so I refused General 
Lee's request. He took an appeal to Mr. Cleveland, 
who sustained me. 

When Mr. McKinley came in, General Lee no doubt 
renewed the request. Certain it is that our State De- 
partment induced the Spanish Minister — who could not 
refuse anything we pressed upon him — to agree that a 
Spanish ship should visit us and we should send one of 
ours to Cuba, thus openly and ostentatiously ignoring 
the insurrection and establishing the ante-insurrection 
peaceful relations. The carefully devised farce ended 
with the escape of the Viscaya, which was diligently 
guarded, from any open insult in New York Harbor, and 
the awful tragedy of the Maine in Havana waters. 
This, no matter whether the explosion was the result of 
accident or design, was the immediate or proximate 
cause of the war and the taking over of the Philippines. 




MK. lLLM.UV.SU l.S A 



GROVER CLEVELAND 403 



IV 

Reference has been made in the body of tliis liook i(< 
Mr. Cleveland's admiration for George P.. Cortclyou. 
whose remarkable gifts first found opi)ortunity for de- 
velopment while assistant private secretary to the Presi- 
dent. It is with pleasure that T am able to add a short 
estimate of the career of his chief by the man who has 
since filled, with such hi^^h distinction, tlirce Cabinet 
offices during the service of a sin.u:le President. Mr. 
Cortelyou's contribution is as follows: 

I 

Mr. Cleveland's career was remarkable in many ways, 
but in none more than in tlie evidence it gave of his 
capacity for growth in the several public positions he 
filled so creditably and with so much benefit to the coun- 
try. Of course the Presidency ofTered the greatest field 
for this development, and it was iicre that it reached its 
fruition. Many of his predecessors in that high office 
had in similar manner risen from humble stati(m and 
had met emergencies as he had to meet them ; and while 
for that reason it may be said he was not exceptional 
when compared with the long line of illustrious occu- 
pants of the place, still his case ])resents so many |)oints 
of diff^erence from theirs that my general contention as 
applied to him holds true. 

As Mayor of Buffalo he displayed qualities which sur 
prised even his closest friends. He did the same in 
larger degree as Governor of New ^'ork. He entered 
ui)on his duties as Chief Executive of the nation in a city 
which he had rarely, if ever, visited. :ind in an envirrni 
ment entirelv unfamiliar lu him. I'ainstaking and thor- 



404 RECOLLECTIONS OF 

ough as he was, he studied the new situation much as he 
studied a case at law, and with the same dogged deter- 
mination to get at its saHent points and learn its good 
and its bad side and ultimately to do justice. He was hon- 
est, blunt, patriotic, and along with these qualities went 
a simplicity of mind and a kindness of heart which at- 
tached to him multitudes of the people and made many 
lasting friendships. 

II 

My close acquaintance with Mr. Cleveland began in the 
latter part of his second administration. I had daily the 
opportunity to study the man and his methods, to learn 
from his lips, in the quiet though busy hours when the 
general official routine was put aside and he devoted 
himself to those tasks which he regarded as peculiarly 
the subject of his personal attention, the policies and the 
principles which were his guide. 

I recall no instance in which he visited any of the de- 
partments in Washington during the time to which I 
refer, if indeed he ever visited any of them, and yet it 
was an occasion of frequent comment that few men in 
his place had so intimate a knowledge of the conduct of 
government affairs, and no one surpassed him in his 
precise information as to the character and qualifica- 
tions of officials throughout the service. His relations 
with the members of the Cabinet were cordial. It is true 
that he sometimes took out of their hands the doing of 
things which might properly have rested in their dis- 
cretion, but he left largely to them the conduct of their 
departments, holding them responsible for the resuks 

attained. 

Ill 

His methods of work were characteristic of the man, 
and, while they at times threw upon him a burden that 



GROVER CLEVELAND 105 

might have l)ocii h^lilcnod, they ncvortlicless ^avc him 
an intimate kn()\vlecli:;-e of suhjects and stami)e(l pohcics 
and causes witli liis own in(hvi(hiahty. He worked late 
at night, seeming to find its c|niet. witli its freedom from 
interruptions, a great help in his study of puhlic (|ues- 
tions and the individual cases that came hefore him. 
Twelve, one, and two o'clock would often find him at 
his desk, and I have known of many instances when, 
engaged on some especially ])ressing case, he would 
w'ork even longer. 

Contrary to the impression some have, he never dic- 
tated any of his correspondence or puhlic addresses hut 
always made the first draft in his own hand. During 
my stay in the White House as his executive clerk there 
was but one instance in which he dictated anything, and 
that was the beginning of a very brief note to the war- 
den of a penitentiary where he had become interested 
in the case of a convict who had api)lied for pardon. He 
dictated a few sentences of the l(?tter, and then, turning 
to the stenographer, said: "Oh, you know what I want 
to find out; fix it up and bring it in to me." When he 
received the draft of the letter, he made a change of a 
word or two better to express his meaning; and the letter 
was then despatched to its destination. 

It may be interesting to add that the reply received 
from the warden was not only so unsatisfactory, but. per- 
haps through carelessness, so discourteous in tone, that 
it drew from Mr. Cleveland a sharp reprimand written 
entirely in his own hand. The original papers, with the 
first draft of the letter, are. T presume, now in the files 
of the Department of Justice. The instance furnishes 
an interesting side-light on Mr. Cleveland's character. 



4o6 GROVER CLEVELAND 

IV 

It would be out of place for one holding the relations 
I held to him to make any extended comment at this 
time upon the life of the White House that lay apart 
from its public and official side; but in saying that his 
home life was beautiful, that he was tender and devoted 
in all its relations, and that he had the deep and affec- 
tionate regard of those who worked with him in the 
Executive Mansion, is but to state a fact well known to 
all who came in close contact with him. 

With those whom he trusted and who understood 
him he was the most genial of companions and the 
stanchest of friends. He recognized in full the dignity 
of his office and required of others and of himself the 
observance of its obligations, but he abhorred needless 
display and empty ceremonial. He sought to accom- 
plish his ends by straightforward methods, and once 
having made up his mind as to his duty, he was unflinch- 
ing in his discharge of it. 

No more conscientious and patriotic man ever filled 
the Presidency, and the wide recognition of his charac- 
ter and achievements, at the time of his death, by friend 
and foe alike, was but an expression of the esteem and 
affection in which he was always held by those who 
knew him best— a memory which they will cherish 
of a strong, brave, well-poised American, at all times 
ready to sacrifice personal considerations to the public 
welfare, rock-bound in his faith in the people, willing 
to abide the verdict of history as to the integrity of his 
purposes and the wisdom of his acts. 



APPENDIX I 



CHRONOLOGY 



First of name in this country, Moses Clcavcland. settle* I in the 
colony of Massachusetts, 1635. 

Rev. Richard Falley Cleveland, born in Norwich. Connecticut. 
June. 19, 1805, married Anne Neal (born in P.altimore. Mary- 
land, February. 1804) in .1829, and settled in Caldwell. New 
Jersey, December, 1834. 

Grover Cleveland, born in Caldwell, "New Jersey. March 18. 1H37. 

Family removed to Fayetteville, New .York, 1841 ; to Clinton. 
New York, in 185 1 ; and in 1853 to Holland Patent. New York, 
where the father died. October i. 1853. 

Clerk in grocery-store, Fayetteville, New York, 185 1. 

Teacher in the Institution for the Blind, Ninth Avenue and 
Thirty- fourth Street, New York City, 1853-54. 

Removed to Buffalo, New York, 1854. 

Assisted in compilation of the "American Shorthorn Herd Book." 
1855 to 1861. 

Admitted to the bar. May, 1859. 

Appointed Assistant District Attorney. January i, 1863. 

Elected Sheriff of Erie County, New ^'ork. November. 1870. 

Formed law firm of Bass, Cleveland & Bissell, January i, 1874. 

Elected Mayor of Buffalo, November, 1881. Took office January 
I, 1882. 

Nominated for Governor of New York. September 22, 1882. 

Elected Governor by over 192,000 majority, November i. 1882. 

Governor of New York from January i. 1883. to January i. 1885. 

Nominated for President by the National Democratic Conven- 
tion, which met in Chicago. July 11. 1884. 

Elected President. November 4. 1884. 

First inauguration as President. March 4. 1885. 



4o8 APPENDIX 

JNlarried in the White House to Miss Frances Folsom, June 2, 

1886. 
Address at the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Harvard 

University, November 9, 1886. 
Started on three weeks' tour of the West and South, September 

30, 1887. 
Renominated for President in St. Louis, June 6, i< 
Defeated at the Presidential election, November, li 
Resumed law practice in New York City, March, 1889. 
Address before the Merchants' Association of Boston, December 

12, 1889. 

First address on Washington at the Michigan State University, 
February 22, 1892. 

Nominated for President, third time, in Chicago, June 23, 1892. 

Reelected President, November 8, 1892. 

Inaugurated as President, second time, March 4, 1893. 

Opened the Columbia Exposition, Chicago, May 3, 1893. 

Chicago rioters proclaimed, July 8, 1894. 

Venezuelan message sent to Congress, December 17, 1895. 

Removed to Princeton, New Jersey, on his sixtieth birthday, 
March 18, 1897. 

Degree of Doctor of Laws conferred by Princeton University, 
June 16, 1897. 

P^irst lecture on the Stafford Little Foundation in Princeton Uni- 
versity, April 9 and 10, 1900. 

Entered Board of Trustees, Princeton University, 1901. 

Degree of Doctor of Jurisprudence conferred by St. Thomas of 
Villa Nova College, June 17, 1902. 

Became Chairman of the Equitable Board of Trustees, June 10, 
1905. 

Elected President of the Association of Life Insurance Presi- 
dents, January 31, 1907. 

Second address on Washington before the Union League Club, 
Chicago, February 22, 1907. 

Died at his home in Princeton, New Jersey, June 24, 1908, 

Buried in Princeton Cemetery, June 26. 1908. 



ArPRXniX TT 



HIHLIOGRAPliY' 



Public Papers of the Governoi of New York for iRK^ and 18H4, 
Albany, 1885. 

Grover Cleveland, in "The Lives of the Presidents" scries. liy 
William O. Stoddard. New York: Fre'.lerick A. Stokes & 
Brother, 1888. 

The Public Papers of Grover Cleveland, twenty-second President 
of the United States, March 4. 1885, to March 4. 188*). Wash- 
ington: Government Printing Office, 1889. 

The Writings and Speeches of Grover Cleveland. Selected and 
edited, with an introduction, by George F. Parker. New York: 
Cassell Publishing Company, 1892. Out of print. 

The Public Papers of Grover Cleveland, twenty-fourth President 
of the United States, March 4, 1893. to March 4. 1S97. Wash- 
ington: Government Printing Office, 1897. 

Presidential Problems. By Grover Cleveland. New York : The 
Century Company. 1904. 

Grover Cleveland at Princeton. By Professor Arthur I'. West. 
The Century Magazine for January. i<>o<>. 

Grover Cleveland: .\ Record of l"ricnd>hip. I'.y Richard Watson 
Gilder. The Century Magazine for August, September, (>:- 
tober, and November, 1909. 

Mr. Cleveland: A Personal Impression. By Jesse Lynch Wil- 
liams. New York : Dodd, Mead & Company, 1909. 

*This list makes no claim to completeness. It inchules, however. » few 
books or articles to which an inquiring reader may turn for further 
information. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Agriculture, Department of. Nor- 
man J. Colman appointed Com- 
missioner and then first Secretary, 
97- 

Allen, Lewis F., uncle of Grover 
Cleveland, editor of "American 
Shorthorn Herd Book." jS 

"American Shorthorn Herd Book," 
Lewis F. Allen editor, Grover 
Cleveland assisted in editing from 
i8s5 to 1861, 28 

Anderson, E. Ellery, Mr. Cleve- 
land's letter to, on silver ques- 
tion, referred to, 151. 

Apgar, Edgai K., one of Tilden's 
lieutenants, 49; correspondence 
with Cleveland, 49; becomes Mr. 
Cleveland's confidential political 
adviser, 369; guest of Mr. Cleve- 
land with William U. Hensel, 392 

Armstrong Committee, referred 
to, 222, 

Arthur, Chester A., opposition to 
free silver coinage, 72; referred 
to, 102; Mr. Cleveland's relations 
to and opinion of, 246 

Bailey, E. Prentiss, letter of Mr. 
Cleveland to, on party conditions, 
220 

Baltimore, Md., Anne Neal, mother 
of Grover Cleveland, born and 
married there, 17 

Bass, Lyman K., friend of Grover 
Cleveland, nominated against him 
for District Attorney and elected, 
35 ; elected to Congress later, 35 ; 
becomes head of law firm of 
Bass, Cleveland & Bissell, 37 

Battle-flags, return of, 386; NIr. 
Clevclaiui's opinion of the mis- 
judgment of pul)iic, 387 

Bayard, Thomas F., presented for 
Presidential nomination, 69; ap- 
pointed Secretary of State in first 
Cabinet, 79; curt dismissal of 
many claims against foreign coun- 
tries, 84; firm attitude upon the 



anti-Semitic mnvrmrnt. 85; name 
considered for rcapp<jintmcnt as 
Secretary of State, 178; popu- 
larity as the first .Vmerican .Am- 
bassador in England, i8q; letter 
to the author on relations of 
United States and Great Britain. 
190; estimate of importance of 
Mr. Cleveland's life to his coun- 
try, 191 ; principal guest Birming- 
ham Dramatic and Literary CluT>, 
192; letter to author on feeling 
aroused by the Venezuela crisis. 
192; only Cabinet officer appointed 
to office in second administration, 
2JT,\ Mr. Cleveland attracted to, 
because of economic opinions. 
291; letters from, found in house- 
cleaning at 816 Madison Avenue, 
303; referred to as representative 
of the South, 309; as a politician 
and candidate for President, 318; 
the opposite of Mr. Cleveland, 
319; his opinion of Mr. Cleve- 
land as President. 320; letters to 
the author about .American rela- 
tions with Great Britain. 321 ; let- 
ter to the author alniut Mr. 
Cleveland, 2)22; Mr. Cleveland's 
opinion of, 323; friendship with. 

Belmont, August, resigns as direc- 
tor of the I-^iiiitablc Life Assur- 
ance Society, 230 

Benedict, E. C, voyages of the 
yacht Onnda. I^*^ 

Bethlehem Iron Company, con- 
tract with, for production of 
armor and g\m steel. 80 

Bible. Mr. Cleveland student of, in 
e.irlicr life. 347 

Bibliography, 410 

Biographical and Historical ma- 
terial, Clevelaiid's indifTrreiuT to, 
6 

Birmingham, United States con- 
sulate in, appointment of author 
to, 188; character of, 188 



414 



INDEX 



Birmingham Dramatic and Lite- 
rary Club, celebration of Shake- 
speare's birthday, 192 

Bissell, Wilson S., inside views of 
second administration, 5; junior 
partner in law firm of Bass, 
Cleveland & Bissell, 37; estimate 
of Cleveland as a lawyer, 37-41 ; 
goes to Albany to the guberna- 
torial inauguration, 56; chosen as 
Postmaster-General in second 
Cabinet, 176; appointed for politi- 
cal, not personal, reasons, 370 

Bissell, Mrs. Wilson S., xvi 

Blaine, James G., Republican candi- 
date for President in 1884 and 
party revolt, 69; Mr. Cleveland's 
action in relation to a scandalous 
report, 245 

Boies, Horace, proposed by friends 
for Vice-President, 133 ; call upon 
Mr. Cleveland, speech at banquet, 
and sequel, 134; threw away Vice- 
Presidency, 135 ; declines tender 
of Secretaryship of Agriculture, 
178 

Boteler, Alexander R., Pardon 
Clerk of the Department of Jus- 
tice, 114; his narration of Cleve- 
land's methods of dealing with 
pardons, 115 

Boutellc, C. A., opposes appropria- 
tion for new navy, 397 

Bowen & Rogers, Grover Cleve- 
land's law preceptors, 28 

Breckinridge, Clifton R., in group 
of Mr. Cleveland's friends, 182 

Bridgeport, Conn., Mr. Cleveland's 
speech there in campaign of 1884, 
70 

Bryan, William Jennings, Mr. 
Cleveland's opinions of, 209; his 
interest in earlier career, 213 ; 
seeking offices for his friends, 
many of them Populists, 214; Mr. 
Cleveland's opinion of his sin- 
cerity in the Parker campaign, 
215; did not believe Bryan would 
be nominated in 1908, 216 

"Bryan and Bryanism," 202 

Bryant, Dr. Joseph D., Mr. Cleve- 
land's intimate friendship with, 

371 

Buchanan, James, Cleveland's sup- 
port of, in campaign of 1856, 33 

Buffalo, N. Y., Grover Cleveland's 
first visit, 28; life at the Southern 
Hotel and estimate of its influ- 



ence upon him, 29; conditions of 
municipal development and favor- 
able geographical position, 42; 
election of Cleveland as Mayor, 
44; inauguration as Mayor, 45; 
asked to meet Daniel Manning, 
48; letter from Edgar K. Apgar, 
49; Mr. Cleveland's reply, 50; Mr. 
Cleveland's general opinion con- 
cerning his position there, 370 
Bynum, William D., in group of 
Mr. Cleveland's friends, 182 

Caldwell, N. J., Rev. Richard 
Falley Cleveland called to pastor- 
ate of Presbyterian church, 18; 
birth of Grover Cleveland, 18 

California. Methods of John P. 
Irish in managing convention, 140 

Campaign biography, written, 4 

Campbell, James E., chosen by 
Whitney Conference in New York 
as President of the Chicago Con- 
vention of 1892, 158; declines to 
have his name presented, 161 

Carlisle, John G., conversation with 
the President reported, 105 ; Mr. 
Cleveland's opinion of, as his 
probable successor, 175 ; in group 
of intellectual friends, 182; eflfect 
of election as Speaker of the 
House, 310; declined Chief Jus- 
ticeship of United States Su- 
preme Court, 367 

Carter, James C, name considered 
for Chief Justiceship of Supreme 
Court, 367 

Cassatt, A. J., resigns as director 
of the Equitable Life Assurance 
Society, 230 

Chamberlain, the Right Honora- 
ble Joseph, M.P., informal con- 
ference held at his house, 193 

Charleston, W. Va., author's jour- 
ney thither to procure Stevenson's 
letter of acceptance, 170 

China, treaty with, negotiated, 85 

Chronology, 408 

Civil Service Reform, appointment 
of men for fitness, 63 ; law adopted 
in response to Mr. Cleveland's 
recommendations, 66; letter to 
George William Curtis, 71 ; atti- 
tude upon, as President, 100 ; not 
a member of the Buff^alo associa- 
tion, 252; letter to the New York 
State Civil Service Reform Asso- 
ciation, 252; suggestions made by 



TXDEX 



41 



David B. Hill and Professor 
Willard Fiskc, 253 ; attitude taken 
in letter of acceptance as gov- 
ernor. 255 ; letter to Thomas 
Spratt, on post-office at Morris- 
town, N. Y., 256 ; anecdote by 
Valentine P. Snyder, 257; exten- 
sion under Presidents Arthur 
and Cleveland, 258; appoints 
George B. Cortelyou, as official 
stenographer and assistant secre- 
tary to the President. 260; Mr. 
Cleveland's large relation to, as 
President, 279; Mr. Cleveland al- 
ways firm supporter, but often 
disapproved methods of advo- 
cates of system, 262 

Civil Service Reform Associa- 
tions, Mr. Cleveland's plain ex- 
pression of opinion concerning, 258 

Cleaveland, Moses, first of name 
on American continent, 14 

Cleveland, Rev. Aaron, the third, 
died in house of Benjamin 
Franklin, 15 

Cleveland, Rev. Aaron, the fourth. 
grandfather of ex-President, life 
in Norwich. Conn., 15 ; genealogi- 
cal poem analyzing family, 15-17 

Cleveland, Grover, writings and 
speeches collected, 3 ; campaign 
biography, 4; indifference to 
gathering of biographical and his- 
torical material, 6; letter sug- 
gesting estimate of himself, 6; no 
finer product of democracy, ii; 
his quality of reticence, II ; these 
recollections a study, not a por- 
trait, 12; indifference to geneal- 
og>'. 13 ; William Cleveland his 
grandfather, 16: birth at Cald- 
well, N. J., 18; clerk in gro- 
cery-store at Fayetteville, N. Y., 
and his interest in the work. 
19 ; bookkeeper and assistant 
superintendent of the New York 
Institution for the Blind, 22: 
estimate of, by Miss Fanny Crosby. 
23-27 ; a persistent reader of his- 
tory and poetry, 2i; his kindness 
of heart as a young man, 2t,: his 
capacity for friendship, 24 : his 
modest demeanor, 24 ; indepen- 
dence and character, 25 ; return 
home to enter upon career, 28; 
emplo\ment sought in Utica and 
Syracuse, 28; visit to his uncle 
Lewis F. Allen at Buffalo, 28; 



begins the study of law with 
Howen & Rogers, 28; admittr ' t 
the liar. 31 ; qualities as .i .st : 
and young piactitioncr, 31 , • 
clerk in law tirm of his pr- ■ ;, 
tors, 31; drafted in the arm . 
procures .substituli-, 32; return to 
practice of the law. and ass«H-ia- 
tion with A. P. Laning and C* 
I'olsom, 36; becomes Shrrr: 
Erie County, 36; enters la\v 
of Bass, Cleveland & H 
37; Wilson S. Missell's est;; 
of position as lawyer, 3^-41 ; mar- 
riage to Miss Frances Polsom. loo 

Political aligtimcnt : supported 
James Buchanan before his ma- 
jority, 33 ; explanation of his rea- 
sons for party affiliations. 33-34; 
intimate knowledge of practical 
politics, 34-35 ; search for avail- 
able candidate for Mayor of Buf- 
falo in 1882, 42; nomination for 
Mayor, 43 ; canvass and election 
as Mayor, 44 ; inaugurated as 
Mayor, 45 ; attends Syracuse Con- 
vention, 52 

Public life: Assistant District 
Attorney of Erie County, New 
York, 31 ; defeated for District 
Attorney, 35 : declined tender of 
place, as .\ssistant United State* 
District .\ttorney, 36; nominated 
and elected Sheriff of Eric County. 
New York. 36; nominated and 
elected Mayor of Buffalo. 44; in- 
augurated as Mayor of Buffalo. 
45; vigorous reform attitude as 
Mayor, 46: "Plain Speech Veto" 
sent to City Council, 47; move- 
ment to nominate Cleveland a* 
Democratic candidate for (gov- 
ernor of New York. 47; askr ! t ■ 
meet Daniel Manning, letter i- 1 
Edgar K. .Xpgar, 40; Mr. Clt . . 
land's reply. 30; asked to attend 
State Convention at Syracuse. 51 ; 
his consent and opinion he ex- 
pressed abtiut it, 52: letter •)f ac- 
ceptance as Governor, 53; cor- 
poration control, 54 ; election as 

Governor, 55: i; " ' 

Governor, 5<i ; he^ 
first annual me>is 
expressed upon t! 
cident t<i the P' 
recommendations in maJurs ut 
State policy, 59; still a master of 



4i6 



INDEX 



vetoes, 60 ;the Five-Cent Fare Bill, 
61 ; appointment of John A. Mc- 
Call as Insurance Commissioner, 
63 ; Railroad Commission author- 
ized and appointed, 63 ; second 
message to the Legislature. 64 ; in- 
terest in questions of taxation, 
65 ; suggested as candidate for 
the Presidency by the State Con- 
vention held in Saratoga, 68; 
nominated for President at Chi- 
cago, 69; letter of acceptance, 70;, 
speeches at Newark, N. J., and 
Bridgeport, Conn., 70; elected 
President of the United States, 
November 4, 1884, 70; first in- 
auguration as President, 73 ; man- 
ner of delivery of inaugural ad- 
dress, 74; methods of choosing 
the new Cabinet, 75 ; dealing with 
Cabinet advisers, 83 ; attention to 
Land and Indian Bureaus, 96; 
contest with the United States 
Senate, 98; tour of the country, 
speeches, and bearing, 101-102 ; 
devotes annual message of 1887 
entirely to tariff question, 103 ; 
author's first acquaintance with, 
no; methods of work, no; how 
he dealt with pardons and com- 
mutations, 115; proofs of Cam- 
paign Text-Book sent him by 
author, 119; visit to, before re- 
tirement from first term, 122; 
renewal of acquaintance in New 
York, 123; in public life again by 
reelection to Presidency, 172; 
making the second Cabinet, 174 
In retirement after first term: 
resumed law practice in New 
York, 123; takes part in Wash- 
ington Inauguration Centennial, 
123 ; preparations for address be- 
fore the Boston Merchants' 
Association, 124; plans for dis- 
tributing same to newspapers, 126; 
letter from, concerning Boston 
address, 127; opinion expressed 
about reelection, 128; methods of 
preparing speeches, 130; know- 
ledge of practical politics, 155 ; re- 
nominated for President, 165 ; 
ideas about party management, 
166 ; speech of acceptance in Madi- 
son Square Garden, 169; suggests 
method of obtaining Stevenson's 
letter of acceptance as Vice- 
President, 169 ; receiving returns 



from Presidential election at 12 
West Fifty-first Street, New York 
City, 171 ; return to public life 
by reelection as President, 172; 
work in later political campaigns, 
202; accepts trusteeship of the 
Equitable stock, 227 ; becomes 
Chairman of the Equitable trus- 
tees, 229 

Letters: to the author, about 
some biographical records, 6; to 
same, about distribution of Bos- 
ton address, 127; to E. Ellery 
Anderson, on silver question, ref- 
erence to, 151 ; to the author, on 
Shakespeare's birthday, 194; to 
Kope Elias, on his permanent re- 
tirement from public life, 204; to 
the author, on the campaign of 
1904, 205 ; to same, announcing 
that his dwn candidacy was im- 
possible, 206; to Everett P. 
Wheeler, on his perplexity as 
President, 212; to the author, ex- 
pressing disbelief in Bryan's nom- 
ination in 1908, 216; to E. Pren- 
tiss Bailey, on party conditions, 
220; to Thomas F. Ryan, accept- 
ing Equitable trust, 228 ; to Secre- 
tary of the Equitable trustees, 
233, 234, 235, 237; to same, on 
execution of trust, 233 ; to same, 
on underwriting operations and 
Equitable directors, 234 ; to same, 
on "agencies," 234; to same, on 
conception of his own respon- 
sibility, 234 ; to same, on the at- 
tention given to his work as trus- 
tee, 235 ; to Thomas Spratt, on 
post-office at Morristown, N. Y., 
256; to Kope Elias, on free coin- 
age of silver, 314; to same, on 
attitude of South towards false 
and dangerous theories, 315 ; to 
the author, describing some meth- 
ods of composition, 350; to same, 
illustrating his manner of accept- 
ing suggestions, 352 ; to same, on 
biography of him, 362 

Opinions of men and things: 
of genealogy and family history, 
14; of his father and clerg>'men's 
sons, 20-21 ; of early associations 
and people, 30; of practical poli- 
ticians, 23 J of methods of deal- 
ing with party organizations, 34; 
of his visit to the Syracuse Con- 
vention, 52 ; of the difficulties sur- 



INDEX 



41; 



rounding a newly elected Gov- 
ernor, 58; Buffalo veto policy 
continued, 60; of William C. 
Whitney, 90; of reelection to the 
Presidency, 12S; of active men 
in certain States, 136; of the 
Farmers' Alliance. 137 ; of Steven- 
son's letter of acceptance as Vice- 
President, 169; of John G. Car- 
lisle, 175; of applicants for Cabi- 
net appointments, 180; of Wil- 
liam L. Wilson, 183 ; of choosing 
men of prominent positions for 
Cabinet officials, 184; of the safe- 
guards of self-government. 185; 
of the acceptance of appointive 
offices, 187; of the demoraliza- 
tion of the Democratic party, 202 ; 
of William Jennings Bryan, 209; of 
the history and principles of the 
Democratic party. 210; of Demo- 
cratic opportunity. 218; of his 
work as Chairman of the Equi- 
table trustees, 237 ; of Thomas F. 
Ryan, 238; of Alonzo B. Cornell, 
242 ; of Charles J. Folger, 243 ; 
of James G. Blaine, 245 ; of Ben- 
jamin Harrison, 247; of William 
McKinley, 249; of Civil Service 
Reform and personal interest, 
258; of the use of patronage to 
punish party opponents, 269; of 
personal friends and offices, 273 ; 
of the use of temporary power 
for personal purposes, 274; of 
Senator George F. Hoar, 291 ; of 
John Sherman, 292; of the orig- 
inal Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission, 296; of appointment of 
Southerner as head of a military 
branch of government. 312; of his 
own unpopularity at close of 
second administration, 315; of 
Thomas F. Bayard, 323; of J. 
Pierpont Morgan, 324; of James 
J. Hill, 326; of George Gray, 
327; of Patrick A. Collins. 330; 
of John E. Russell. ^,^^2: of 
Samuel J. Tilden, 337. 33^- 340. 
341 ; of David B. Hill and the 
New York State election of 1888. 
342; of ingratiating himself with 
editors or owners of newspapers, 
360; of independence of the ju- 
diciary. 365 ; of the Chief Justice 
of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, 376; of newspaper 
editors, 376; of the Bible, 382; 
27 



of the United States as a Chris- 
tian nation, 383 
Cleveland, Mrs.Grover, n^c Fran- 
ces I'olMxn. tnarriaijc and char- 
acter, I (XI 

Cleveland, Lewis Fredric, enlisted 
in I'ederal army irum New York 
City and served in the Army of 
the Potomac. 3J 

Cleveland, Richard Cecil, enlisted 
in Inderal army from rrawfor<h- 
ville. hid., and served in West 

« under General Grant, 32 

Cleveland, Rev. Richard Falley, 
birth in Norwich. Conn., ifi; edu- 
cated in schools of native place, 
16; graduated from Yale College. 
17; married to Anne N'eal. 17; 
first parish at Windham, Conn.. 
17; called to Presl)ytcrian church 
at Portsmouth. Va., 18; settled at 
Caldwell. N. J.. 18; birth of 
Grover Cleveland. 18; called to 
Fayetteville. N. Y., 18; removal 
to Fayetteville, N. Y.. as pastor 
of Presbyterian church. ig; 
meagre salary as minister. 19; 
removal to Clinton as President 
American Home Missionary So- 
ciety. 19; removal to Holland 
Patent, N. Y., and death, jo; 
Grover Cleveland's trilnife fo. ji 

Cleveland. Miss Rose Elizabeth, 
sister of (irover Cleveland, xv 

Cleveland, William, Grover Cleve- 
land's grandfather, married to 
Margaret I-'allcy. 16; birth of 
Richard Fallev Cleveland. 16 

Cleveland, Rev.' William N , edu- 
cation at Clinton Academy atul 
Hamilton College. 19; employed 
as principal male teacher in In- 
stitution for the Blind. 22: re- 
ferred to by Miss Fanny J. 
Crosby. 27 

Cleveland homes, the, 12 West 
iMtty -first Street. New York. 171; 
Buzzards Hay. Mass.. 168; Prince- 
ton. N. J.. 225; 816 Madison 
Avenue, New York, 253 

"Cleveland weather" at first in- 
auguratimi. 7.^ 

Clinton, De Witt, Governor of 
New Yc^rk. 56 

Clinton, George, Governor of New 
^'ork. V> 

Clinton, N. Y., Rev Richard Falley 
Cleveland's removal there as Prc5H 



4i8 



INDEX 



dent of the American Home Mis- 
sionary Society, 19; seat of Ham- 
ilton College, 19 

Cochran, William Bourke, speech 
before the National Convention 
of 1892 in Chicago, 164 

Collected "Writings and 

Speeches," part of the campaign 
for 1892, 3 ; chapter on the Indian 
question in, 97 

Collins, Patrick A., relations with 
Mr. Cleveland, 328; estimate of, 
329; latter's opinion of, 330; con- 
tributes to memorial of, 331 

Colman, Norman J., original Sec- 
retary of Agriculture, 97; friend- 
ship w^ith Mr. Cleveland, 372 

Columbus, O., "Old Roman" ban- 
quet held in, Mr. Cleveland prin- 
cipal speaker, 132 

Commission, government by, Mr. 
Cleveland's fears, 295 ; danger of 
use by politicians or designing 
men, 299 

Conference, the Whitney, 156; ad- 
journed to Chicago, 158; never 
mentioned in newspapers, 158; 
met at Hotel Richelieu, Chicago, 
159; presided over at first meet- 
ing by Adlai E. Stevenson, 159 

Constitution Centennial in Phila- 
delphia, 102 

Cornell, Alonzo B., Mr. Cleve- 
land's predecessor as Governor, 
242 

Corporations, their control by the 
State, 54 

Cortelyou, George Bruce, appointed 
official stenographer and assistant 
private secretary, 260 ; anecdote 
of, narrated by General L. T. 
Michener, 261 ; Mr. Cleveland's 
confidence and interest in, 262 ; 
career used by Mr. Cleveland to 
illustrate possibilities of our sys- 
tem, 263. Estimate of Mr. Cleve- 
land, 404-407 : high qualities dis- 
played, 404 ; close acquaintance 
with, 405; methods of work, 406; 
domestic life, beauty of, 407 

Crosby, Miss Fanny, pupil and 
teacher in Institution for the 
Blind, 22; estimate of Gro\i2r 
Cleveland, 2.3-27 

Curtis, George William, letter to, 
on Civil Service Reform, 71 ; 
favored appointment of Daniel 
Manning in Cabinet, "JT, Presi- 



dent State Civil Service Reform 
Association, 252 

"Democracy in America," Dr. 
Tocqueville's, cited in a message, 
66 

Democratic Campaign Text-Book 
for 1888, prepared by author in 
White House, 106; proofs sent 
to the President, 119; one hun- 
dred volunteer workers assisted 
in its compilation, 120; author's 
secret never revealed, 121 

Democratic National Convention 
of 1884, at Chicago, July 11, 68 

Democratic National Convention 
of 1892, methods of management 
of Mr. Cleveland's cause, 159-163; 
speech by W. Bourke Cochran, 164 

Democratic National Convention 
of 1908, Mr. Cleveland's keen in- 
terest in, 217 

Democratic party, Mr. Cleveland's 
concern over its demoralization 
after 1896, 202; opinion of 
"wreckers," 207 ; fear that it 
might become a "Cave of Adul- 
1am," 208; opinion of its principles 
and history, 210; treachery to, in 
second administration, and Mr. 
Cleveland's skepticism, 211; Mr. 
Cleveland's sorrow over its sad 
condition, 222 

Democrats, the Cleveland, 277 ; 
Mr. Cleveland's interest in and 
knowledge of, 283 ; name given 
to a type, 284 

Dickinson, Don M., presses Mr. 
Cleveland to accept invitation to 
make address on Washington 
before students of Michigan 
State University, 145 ; attends con- 
ference at William C. Whitney's 
house. 156, n.; friendship with 
Mr. Cleveland, 372 

Dix, John A., Governor of New 
York, 56 

Donahue, Judge, referred to, 221 

Drum, General R. C, recommends 
return of captured battle-flags, 
387 

Economic questions, Mr. Cleve- 
land's careful study of, attracted 
to Washington, Hamilton, Jeffer- 
son, Madison, and Jackson, 286 ; and 
to Samuel J. Tilden, 288; friend- 
ship for Joseph E. McDonald, 



INDEX 



41Q 



289; attitude towards Thomas A. 
Hendricks, 290; towards Allen (i. 
Thurman, 290; and towards Adiai 
E. Stevenson. 291 

Edmunds, George F., Mr. Cleve- 
land attracted to his attitude on 
financial questions, 292 

Elias, Kope, Mr. Cleveland's letter 
to, on permanent retirement from 
politics, 204 ; letter to, on free 
coinage of silver, 314; letter to, 
on attitude of the South towards 
false and dangerous theories, 315 

Emperor of Germany, telegram to 
President Kruger of the Trans- 
vaal Republic, ig2 

Endicott, William C, appointed 
Secretary of War in first Cabi- 
net, 80; careful management of 
his department, 92; friendship 
with Mr. Cleveland, ^f^z 

England, complications with, over 
naturalized citizens, 84; new ex- 
tradition treaty with, 85 

Equitable Life Assurance Society, 
Thomas F. Ryan's purchase of 
the stock and nomination of trus- 
tees of, 224; organization of 
trustees, 229; resignations of di- 
rectors, 230; address issuecj by 
trustees, 231 

Equitable trust, the, constituted 
by Thomas F. Ryan with Mr. 
Cleveland as head, 224; Mr. 
Ryan's letter to Mr. Cleveland, 
225 ; Morgan J. O'Brien and 
George Westinghouse made mem- 
bers of, 226; organization com- 
pleted, 229; filling vacancies in 
directorate, 230; correspondence 
concerning, with secretary, 233, 
234, 23s, 2^7, 240; Mr. Cleve- 
land insists that technicalities 
shall not count, 236; Mr. Cleve- 
land's opinion of the work done, 
237; diminishes misunderstand- 
ings in the South, 316 

Ewing, William G., attends con- 
ference at William C. Whitney's 
honse, 156, n. 

Fairchild, Charles S., succeeds Mr. 
Manning as Secretary of the 
Treasury, 87; invested proceeds 
sinking fund in purchase of bonds, 
87 ; consulted about Anderson let- 
ter on free silver, 151 ; Mr. Cleve- 
land's friendship with, i^z 



Fallcy, Margaret, married to Wil- 
liam C'lcwl.iiid. i() 

Farmers' Alliance movement, the. 
.Mr. CUv(l.ind\ intiTi-st in, M7 

Fayetteville, N. Y., Rev. Richard 
l.iiley Clevrl.inds rcmrival there 
as pastor ot Presbyterian church. 
i8-ig; (irover Cleveland clerk in 
grocerv-sfi>re. 10 

Fiske, t'rofcssor Willard, Jetier 
from, to D.iviil H. ilill. sent to 
Mr. Clrvrlaiul. .'53 

Flower, RoswcU P., candidate for 
Democratic gubernatorial nomina- 
tion in 1W2. 48 

Folger, Charles J., Secretary of 
the Treasury and Repul)lican can- 
didate for (juvernor of New 
York, 48; Mr. Cleveland's opin- 
ion of, 243 

Folsom, Miss Frances, marriage 
to (Irover Cieveiaiui. loO 

Folsom, Oscar, number of tirm of 
Laniiig. Inlsoin & Cleveland. 36 

Foreign affairs, care in manaRc- 
ment of. 84; complications with 
Great Britain over Irish disputes, 
84; prevention by treaty of en- 
trance of Chinese laborers, 85 

Franklin, Benjamin, Rev. Aaron 
Cleveland, tliird, dies at his house 
in Philadelplna, 15 

Frick, Henry C, resigns as direc- 
tor of the I'".(|uitable Life .-Vssur- 
ance Socictw 2,^o 

Friendships, Mr. Cleveland's, 3'»j; 
Enlargement of circle in Wash- 
ington, including all members of 
Cabinet. 371 ; with Senators and 
Representatives. 374 ; shy of news- 
paper men. 375 ; interest in 
.struggling persons. 377 ; capacity 
for friendship, 378; a greeting 
from William C. Whitney. 37*); 
a parting letter from William K. 
Vilas. 3S0 

Fuller, Melville W.. appointed 
Chief Justice of the L'nifed States 
Supreme Court. 93 ; deciding rea- 
son for making appointment. 
368 

Garland, Augustus H.. appointed 
.•\ttorney-(itiural in tirst Cabinet. 
79; conduct of his office, QJ ; 
letters from, found in house- 
cleaning process. 303: stat' 
for, prepared by Mr. Cle-. 



420 



INDEX 



304 ; referred to as representing 
the South, 309 

Genealogy, Mr. Cleveland's indif- 
ference to, 13 ; opinion of what 
constitutes a good family, 14; 
first of name on American con- 
tinent, 14; poem by Rev. Aaron 
Cleveland, fourth, 15-17 

"Gold Telegram," interest shown 
by Mr. Cleveland in campaign 
of igo8 after the sending of, 207 

Governor of New York, his re- 
sponsibility, 56 

Grant, General U. S., silence re- 
ferred to, 358 

Gray, George, believed to be the 
logical candidate for President in 
1904, 203 ; friendship with Mr. 
Cleveland, 310; Mr. Cleveland's 
opinion of, 327 

Green, Andrew H.,anecdote of, 339 

Gresham, Judge Walter Q., 
chosen for Secretary of State, 178 

Ham, Moses M., interest in nom- 
ination of Horace Boies for Vice- 
President, 133 

Hamilton, Alexander, Mr. Cleve- 
land's study of, 287 

Harriman, Edward H., resigns as 
director of the Equitable Life 
Assurance Society, 230 

Harrison, Benjamin, Mr. Cleve- 
land's opinion of, 246; character- 
istics, 247; Mr. Cleveland re- 
sented efforts of his own ap- 
pointees to hold on under, 276; 
never bowed to the god of free 
silver, 289 

Harrity, William F., attends con- 
ference at William C. Whitney's 
house, 156, n. 

Haynie, William Duff, xvi 

Hendricks, Thomas A., presented 
for Presidential nomination and 
chosen for Vice-President, 69; 
Mr. Cleveland rather resented his 
attitude on financial questions, 290 

Hensel, William U., estimate of 
Mr. Cleveland, 390-395 : meeting 
with him at a Brooklyn barbecue, 
391 ; description of articles sent 
after election of 1884, 393 ; ex- 
perience in pardon cases, 393, 

394. 395 
Herbert, Hilary A., chosen for 
Secretary of the Navy, 178; Mr. 
Cleveland explains his hesitation 



to appoint as head of military 
branch, as Secretary of the Navy, 
312. Estimate of Mr. Cleveland, 
395-403: reconstruction of the 
navy, 395; bill reported to the 
House, 397; issues on which Mr. 
Cleveland was renominated in 
1892, 399; gold platform adopted 
by Republicans, 400; anecdote by, 
illustrating same, 401 ; relations 
of the United States with Spain, 
402 
Hill, David B., New York delega- 
tion to Chicago Convention of 
1892 instructed for, 145 ; not con- 
sidered for Cabinet appointment, 
because term in United States 
Senate had just been entered on, 
176; letter to Mr. Cleveland on 
Civil Service Reform, 253; Mr. 
Cleveland's opinion of, in rela- 
tion to New York State cam- 
paign of 1888, 342; his own opin- 
ion of this contradictory result, 

343 

Hill, James J., resigns as director 
of the Equitable Life Assurance 
Society, 230; Mr. Cleveland's 
opinion of, 326 

Hilles, Mrs. W. B., nee Florence 
Bayard, xvi 

Hoar, George F,, Mr. Cleveland's 
reminder that he was for honest 
money, 291 

Honey, Samuel R., attends confer- 
ence at William C. Whitney's 
house, 156, n. 

House-cleaning process at 816 
Madison Avenue, New York 
City, 13, 253; done during Easter 
week of 1892, 301 ; some of the 
revelations it made, 302 ; interest- 
ing correspondence and public 
documents, 303 ; letters from 
Messrs. Bayard, Whitney, Vilas, 
Lamar, and Garland. 303 

Hyde-Alexander quarrel, the, Mr. 
Cleveland's interest in, 223 

"In my blundering way," one of 

Mr. Cleveland's stock phrases. 351 
Institution for the Blind, in New 
York, William and Grover Cleve- 
land employed as teachers, 22 
Insurance Department, appoint- 
ment of Superintendent. 63 
Insurance episode, the, 223 
Interstate Commerce Commis- 



i 



INDEX 



4-1 



sion, 295 : Mr. Cleveland sifjns 
the bill with misgivings. J96 ; ap- 
pointment of Thomas M. Coolcy 
as original Chairman. 297 

Ipswich, England, Moses Cleavc- 
land loaves there for Massachu- 
setts. 14 

Irish, John P., activity in promot- 
ing renomination campaign in 
California, 140; anecdote concern- 
ing. 141 ; his estimate of Mr. 
Cleveland's position in declining 
to press for Cabinet appointment, 
180; referred to by Mr. Cleve- 
land. 187. Estimate contributed 
by. 386-390: opinion of Mr. 
Cleveland's judgment of men, 388 

Jackson, Andrew, Mr. Cleveland's 
birthday speech on, 350 

Jay, John, favored appointment of 
Daniel Manning in Cabinet. "]-; ; 
member of committee State Civil 
Service Reform Association. 2^2 

Jefferson, Thomas, Mr. Cleveland's 
studies and addresses on, 287 

Jenks, George A., eflFiciency as 
Solicitor-General, 93 

Judiciary, the, and official criticism, 
365; Mr. Cleveland's pride in ap- 
pointments to. 366; choice of 
Chief Justice and considerations 
entering therein, 367 

Kieley, Anthony M., sent as Min- 
ister to Italv and later to Austria. 

85 
Kruger, President, German Em- 
peror's telegram to, 192 

Labor questions, come to the front 
as issues during Mr. Cleveland's 
first year as Governor, questions 
emphasized, 63; veto of bill deal- 
ing with contract labor, 67 

Lamar, L. Q. C, appointed Secre- 
tary of the Interior in the first 
Cabinet. 79 ; appointed Associate 
Justice of the United States Su- 
preme Court. 80; support of Hoke 
Smith for Secretary of the In- 
terior. 177; agreement with Mr. 
Cleveland on financial questions. 
291 ; letters from, found in house- 
cleaning process, 303: reference 
to, as representing the South. 30Q ; 
friendship with Mr. Cleveland. 372 

Lament, Daniel S., inside views of 



second admini';tration. 5; rir>t 
used phrase. "Public office, a pub- 
lic trust." as title of a campaign 
pamplilet, 44 ; appointed private 
secretary to the President. 76; tele- 
gram from, to author alnnit Cam 
paigTi Text -Hook, 106; scheme of. 
outlint'd. 107; credential.s given to 
author. 108; asks author to sec 
Mr. Cleveland, 124; consulted 
about the letter to K. Kllcry An- 
derson on free silver, 151 ; chown 
for Secretary of War, 177; re- 
ferred to. 188: interest in the 
campaign of i(X34, 205; lieutenant 
to Samuel J. Tildcn. 3.^; inti- 
macy of relations with Sir. Cloc- 
land. 371 

Laning, A. P., head of firm «>f 
Laning, Folsom & Cleveland. 3ft 

Lee, General Fitzhugh, Consul- 
Gencral to Havana, asks that a 
war-vessel >lii)uld be sent into 
Cnl>an waters. 402 

Legislatures, 363; Mr. Cleveland 
would not use social influence to 
influence >amc. 364 

Lentz, John J., organizes and suc- 
cessfully conducts the "Old Ro- 
man" banquet to .Mien G. Thur- 
man in Columbus. O.. 132 

Letter of acceptance of Presiden- 
tial nomination in 1884, submitted 
to Sanuifl J. TiMrn. .vv8 

Literary deficiencies of the time, n 

Lochren, William, pressed for 
Cabinet appointment. appointc<I 
Commissioner of Pensions and 
later United States Judge. 180 

McCall, John A., appointed Super- 
iiitcndont of In-urancc, 63 

McDermott, Edward J., assistant 
secretary of the adjourned Whit 
ney Conference in Chicago. 150 

McDonald. Joseph E.. presented 
f'.r rrisidcnt:.i! nonnnntioti. f«); 
Mr. Clcvclatiil attrai-te<l to. ^^ 

McKinley, William. Mr. Cleve- 
land's opinion of, 24S 

Madison, James, Mr. Geveland's 
studies of the "Debates of the 
Constitutional Convention." 287 

"Maine." destruction of. at Ha- 
van.T. .\o\ 

Making the second Cabinet, names 
considered. 174: David B. Hill. 
176; Wilson S. Bisscll. 176; 



422 



INDEX 



Daniel S. Lamont, 177; Hoke 
Smith. 177; Hilary A. Herbert, 
178; Richard Olney, 178; Walter 
Q. Gresham, 178; Thomas F. 
Bayard, 178; John E. Russell, 178; 
Horace Boies, 178; J. Sterling 
Morton, 179; John P. Irish, 
180 

Malietoa, Joseph, King oi Samoa, 
letter from, to President, 305 

Management of the campaign in 
1892, 167 

Manchester Consulate, confused 
by President with that of Birm- 
ingham, 188 

Manning, Daniel, attracted to acts 
of Cleveland as Mayor of Buflfalo 
while looking for a candidate for 
Governor of New York, 49; ap- 
pointed Secretary of the Treasury, 
76; averting threatening financial 
perils, 86; resignation from Cabi- 
net, 87; lieutenant to Samuel J. 
Tilden, 338; chosen Secretary of 
the Treasury because of impor- 
tance, 370 

Marble, Manton, drafted letter to 
A. J. Warner and others against 
free coinage of silver, 340 

Marcy, William L., Governor of 
New York, 56 

Matthews, Nathan, attends con- 
ference at William C. Whitney's 
house, 156, n. 

Maxwell, Robert A., fourth assis- 
tant Postmaster-General in sec- 
ond administration, recommends 
George B. Cortelyou for official 
stenographer, 260 

Meehan, Thomas F,, in secret of 
renomination campaign of 1892, 147 

Memory, not to be relied upon 
without supporting testimony, 8 

Merchants' Association of Bos- 
ton, Mr. Cleveland's address be- 
fore, 124 ; speech the opening gun 
in renomination campaign, 128 

Methods of preparing speeches, 
Cleveland's, 130; distribution to 
newspapers, 131 

Michener, General L. T., discovers 
qualities of George B. Cortelyou, 
and anecdote of, 261 

Miller, Dr. George L., reference 
to interest in his party, 22 

Mills, Roger Q., in group of Mr. 
Cleveland's associates, 182 

Mills Bill, Bryan's support of, 213 



Monroe, Colonel Robert Grier, 

xvi 

Montgomery, Ala., President's po- 
litical speech in, loi 

Morgan, J. Pierpont, Mr. Cleve- 
land's opinion of, as banker and 
patriot, 324 

Morss, Samuel E., attends confer- 
ence at William C. Whitney's 
house, 156, n. 

Morton, jf. Sterling, Mr. Cleve- 
land's expression of opinion on, 
chosen for Secretary of Agricul- 
ture, 179 

Morton, Paul, President of the 
Equitable Life Assurance Society, 

234 
"Mutualization" of Equitable, con- 
dition of trust created by Thomas 
F. Ryan, 235 ; votes of policy- 
holders taken under, 235 

Neal, Anne, born in Baltimore and 
married to Rev. Richard Falley 
Cleveland, 17; mother of Grover 
Cleveland, 18; death in 1882, 20 

Nelson, Henry L., referred to in 
letter, 6 

New York politics, not in scope, 
of renomination movement in 
1892, 144 ; Snap Convention, so- 
called, 145 ; Anti-Snappers do mis- 
sionary work in other States, 
153 ; some mistaken ideas about 
attitude of State Committee dur- 
ing campaign of 1892, 168 

Newark, N. J., Mr. Cleveland's 
speech there in campaign of 1884, 
70 

Newspapers, Mr. Cleveland's deal- 
ings with, in matter of news, 
methods of distributing speeches, 
after the election of 1892, 174; 
shy of editors and reporters, 

376 

Niagara Falls Reservation, bill 
passed during Mr. Cleveland's 
second year as Governor, 67 

Norwich, Conn., Rev. Aaron Cleve- 
land, third, life there, 15; William 
Cleveland, watchmaker, 16; Rich- 
ard Falley Cleveland settles in 
town where born, 16 

Note-taking habit, equipment of an 
editor, 4; usefulness in writing 
and verifying references, 7-8 

Nott, Charles C, Chief Justice 
Court of Claims, 367 



iNni:x 



42.^ 



O'Brien, Morgan J,, mcmhcr Kciiii- 

tahlo .stock trust. jj6 

O'Brien, Robert Lincoln, Mr. 
Cleveland's steiioj:;raplHT and sec- 
retary in Buzzard's Bay and 
Wasliington, 353 

Official stenographer, Robert Lin- 
coln O'Brien's resignation, 259; 
appointment of George B. Cor- 
telyou. 260 

"Old Roman" banquet to Allen G. 
Thurnian in Columbus, O., 132 

Olney, Richard, chosen for Attor- 
ney-General. 178 ; president's close 
relations with, as Secretary of 
State. 195 ; further tribute to. 
quoted, 197; despatch to Lord 
Pauncefote submitted to Cabinet, 
198 

Palmer and Buckner ticket, Mr. 
Cleveland's interest in. 213 

Pardons and commutations, Cleve- 
land's methods of dealing with. 
114; illustrated by A. R. Botclcr's 
experience, 115; principles run- 
ning through his policy, 118 

Parker, Alton B., in movement to 
procure Cabinet appointment for 
Daniel Manning. 76; candidacy 
for Democratic nomination in 
1904. 206; courage shown by the 
"Gold Telegram," 207 ; narration 
of, in respect to office tendered 
by President, 268; report of Gov- 
ernor Hill's opinion of State cam- 
paign of 1888. 343 

Parker, George F., attends confer- 
ence at William C. Whitney's 
house and is chosen secretary, 
156, H. ; continued as secretary dur- 
ing Chicago meetings. 159; rela- 
tions to Mr. Cleveland personal, 
not political, 172; desire to retire 
from all political connections, 174; 
referred to by Mr. Cleveland, 
187; elected president of Birm- 
ingham Dramatic and Literary 
Club. 192; makes political journey 
through some Western States. 215 ; 
takes to Mr. Cleveland Mr. Ryan's 
invitation to become trustee of 
Equitable stock. 225 ; letters to. 
from Mr. Cleveland, 6, 127, 194. 
205. 206. 216, 233, 234, 235, 2i7. 
350, 352. 362 

Parker campaign in 1904, large 
number of persons at Headquar- 



ters, 167; Mr. Cleveland's intrr- 
cst in. 207; makes two spccciics 
in, 20S 

Pauncefote, Lord, Mr Olncy'sdcs- 
I);itih to. \i)S. 

Pcnfield, Frederic Courtland. w 1 

Personal friends and the offices, 
272; thought it drawback to In- 
one of his friends, 274; resent- 
ment of office-holders in first a«l- 
minist ration who used influence 
to hold over. 276; the Cleveland 
Democrats, 277; high type of ap- 
pointees. 279 

Phelps, Edward J., Minister to 
Kngland. concludes new extra- 
dition treaty, 86; name considernl 
for Chief Justice of the United 
States Sujireme Court. 367 

Philadelphia, Constitution Cen- 
tennial iti, 102 

"Plain Speech Veto" sent to City 
Council of Buffalo, 47 

Politician, Mr. Cleveland's pecu- 
liarities as, 277; novitiate as, 324 

Populist party. Mr. Cleveland's in- 
terest in, 208; belief that Bryan 
would become its real leader, 209; 
appearance of its ideas in the 
South. 3ri 

Portsmouth, Va., Rev. Richard 
b'aliiy Cleveland's pastorate. 18 

Post-Office Department, rapid 
growth of. ami economies insti- 
tuted. ()4 

Potter, Henry C, Bishop of New 
York, sermon in St. Paul's Ch.ipel 
on Washington's Inaugurati<in 
Centennial. 124 

Pratt, Sereno S., in secret of the 
renomination campaign of 1892, 147 

President, Cleveland's methods 
while. 109; how he did his work, 
no; public receptions, 112; popu- 
larity with executive staff, 113 

Presidential campaigns, m.T .- 
ment in 1S8.J. 70; prclir 
campaign in 18S8. mi); i:.:.'.. 
man.ii^eineiit in N'l w ^'ork. I2J 

"Presidential Problems." book con- 
taining Princeton lectures, re- 
ferred to, 99 

Public men, their indifference to 
biocr.ipln- and historv. to 

"Public office, a public trust." 
originated by Daniel S. Lamont 
as a title to a campaign pamphlet, 
44 



424 



INDEX 



Public opinion, legislation, courts, 

359; Mr. Cleveland had no gift 
for dealing with newspapers, 359; 
realized his own deficiencies in 
this respect, 360; appreciation of 
efforts of others illustrated by 
letters to author, 362 

Public patronage, 265 ; great atten- 
tion given even to small places, 
266; procured information wher- 
ever obtainable, 266; not used to 
build up personal or party ma- 
chine, 267 ; narrative of Judge 
Alton B. Parker, 268 ; Mr. Cleve- 
land's refusal to use it for pun- 
ishment of opponents inside his 
party, 269; used by Bryan and 
Bland against administration, 
271 ; relation to his personal 
friends, 272; use of, for per- 
sonal purposes, 274; Mr. Cleve- 
land's pride in character of his 
appointments, 275 ; made appoint- 
ments to suit himself, 278 

"Punch," joins in chorus on oc- 
casion of Shakespeare birthday 
celebration, 194 

Quincy, Josiah, attends conference 
at William C. Whitney's house, 
156, n. 

Railroad Commission, New York, 

created in Mr. Cleveland's first 
year as Governor, and care in fill- 
ing it, 63 

Randall, Samuel J., presented for 
Presidential nomination, 69 

Reading and studies, Mr. Cleve- 
land's, 347 

Reed, Thomas B., opposes appro- 
priation for new navy, 397 

Reform Club banquet, New York, 
intensifies interest in renomina- 
tion campaign, 133 

Religion, Mr. Cleveland's unques- 
tioning faith, 382 ; believed the 
United States to be a Christian 
nation, 383 ; devotion to the cause 
of missions, 384; his low opinion 
of sensational preaching, 385 

Remarkable results of campaign 
of 1882, 53 

Renomination in 1892, opinion ex- 
pressed by Mr. Cleveland about 
the same, 128; no organization 
for promoting, 132 ; impetus given 
to, by Congressional elections of 



1890, 132; popular demand for, 
intensified by Reform Club ban- 
quet, December 23, 1890, 133 ; no 
committees, machinery, or money 
for promoting, 135; takes on 
form unconsciously, 136; friends 
outside the party machine, 137; 
movement continues to run it- 
self, 138; most of the men un- 
known to Mr. Cleveland or to 
each other, 139 ; how ' the men 
knew each other, 140; methods 
in California, 140; no distinctive 
machine before Washington's 
Birthday, 1892, 142; Mr. Cleve- 
land's earliest thought of him- 
self as a possible candidate, 144; 
known by Sereno S. Pratt, cor- 
respondent of the Philadelphia 
Ledger, and Thomas F. Meehan, 
correspondent of the Baltimore 
Sun, 147; influencing newspapers 
in many cities, 148 ; work done by 
local men, 149; cooperation by 
the newspapers, 150; William C. 
Whitney late in entering, 151 ; 
policy of writing Anderson letter, 
151 ; conference at William C. 
Whitney's house suggested by 
Mr. Cleveland, 156; nominated 
at Chicago by more than two- 
thirds vote, 165 ; author's posi- 
tion personal, 172; reelected 
President, 172; cost of campaign 
of three years, 173; in public life 
again, 174 

Reticence, Mr. Cleveland's posses- 
sion of it, II 
.Richardson, Jennis J., member 
National Committee, interests 
himself in nomination of Hor- 
ace Boies for Vice-President, 
133 

Roosevelt, Theodore, Mr. Cleve- 
land's opinion of, 250 

Russell, John E., attends confer- 
ence at William C. Whitney's 
house, 156, n. ; declines tender of 
Secretaryship of Agriculture, 178; 
in group of Mr. Cleveland's 
friends, 182 ; Mr. Cleveland drawn 
to, 331 ; offered Secretaryship of 
the Navy and Department of 
Agriculture, 332; Mr. Cleveland's 
opinion of, 332 

Russell, Mrs. John E., xvi 

Russell, William E., character of 
his political work in Massachu- 



INDEX 



4-^5 



setts, 345; friendship witli Mr. 
Cleveland, 346 
Ryan, Thomas Fortune, averts 
panic by huyiuR lupiitable Life 
Assurance Society, 2^4 ; letter to 
Mr. Cleveland inviting him to he- 
come a trustee of the Equitable 
stock, 225: Mr. Cleveland's reply, 
226; makes "mutualization" a con- 
dition of the trust, 235; Mr. 
Cleveland's opinion of, his useful 
and disinterested conduct, 240; 
letter from, expressing opinion of 
political matters in the South, 313 

Saratoga Convention presents 
Cleveland's name for President, 
68 

Schell, Augustus, president New 
York Institution for the Blind 
and supporter of Grover Cleve- 
land, 22 

Schiff, Jacob H., resigns as direc- 
tor of the Equitable Life Assur- 
ance Society, 230 

Schoonmaker, Augustus, leader of 
movement to procure Cabinet ap- 
pointment for Daniel Manning, 76 

"Sentiment in Our National Life," 
address by Mr. Cleveland on 
Washington's Birthday, Febru- 
ary 22, 1892, 146 

Seward, William H., Governor of 
New York. 56 

Seymour, Horatio, Governor of 
New York, 56; Mr. Cleveland re- 
gards himself as a follower of, 
283 : leadership of, 388 

Shakespeare birthday celebration, 
192; success of the experiment, 
193 ; letter from the President, 
Mr. Cleveland, 194 

Sherman, John, Mr. Cleveland's 
opinion of his position on finan- 
cial questions, 292 

Silver, free coinage of, letter ad- 
vocating repeal of the Bland Law, 
71 ; peril from, reduced to mini- 
mum, 87 ; President's apprehen- 
sions concerning, 123; letter to 
E. Ellery Anderson condemning, 
151 ; attitude towards repeal of 
law at special session, 211; re- 
fusal to discriminate against ad- 
vocates of, 269; Benjamin Harri- 
son always opposed to, 289; letter 
to Kope Elias from Mr. Cleve- 
land on, 314 



Sinclair. William, steward of the 
W'hiti- 1 liiiisc. 3fio 

Slocum, General Henry W., <-.iii 
didate for Dcmocratii- Kjtibrrii.i 
tdri.Tl niiiiimation in iK8.». 4H 

Smalley. Bradley B., attnids con 
ference at William C. Whitney's 
house, 156, ri 

Smith, Hoke, inside views of src- 
ond administration, 5; chosen for 
Secretary of the Interior. 177; 
opinion of Mr. Cleveland's mo- 
tives, 200 

Snap Convention of 189a, so-called. 
instructs for David ii llill. 145 . 
protest against, by fru-nds of .Mr 
Cleveland, 146; strong srntimrnl 
aroused in country by. 147: 
Cleveland's friends kept clear of 
Anti-Snap movement, 148 

Snyder, Valentine P., experience 
with Mr. Clivtiand when Presi- 
dent, 257 

South, the, Mr. Cleveland's lack 
of personal knowledge of. 307; 
attitude towards, of first adminis- 
tration, 308; appointment of 
Bayard, Lamar, and Garland to 
Cabinet, 309; appearance in. of 
wild schemes of Populism. 311; 
hesitation of President to appoint 
Mr. Herbert as head of a military 
branch of the Government. 31.^ 

Speeches, preparation of, 348 

Spratt, Thomas, httcr to, on post- 
office at Mi'rristowii. N. V. 2S'» 

State campaign in 1883. remark- 
able metliods and result*. 53; .Mr. 
Cleveland's letter of acceptance 
as Governor, 54; opinion of cor- 
poration contrnj, t^ 

Stetson, Francis Lynde. attends 
conference at William C. Whit- 
ney's house, I5'>. n. 

Stevenson. Adlai E., Chairman of 
adjourned Whitney Conference 
in Chicago. 159; letter of accept- 
ance as Vice-President, metho<l 
of obtaining same, I<i9; reference 
to greenback recorcl. 291 

Stone, Sir Benjamin, proposed a 
friendly demonstration towards 
America on occasion' of Ambas- 
sador's visit to Birmingham. IQJ 

Style in writing and speech, Mr. 
Cleveland's, 347; n"t -i -tump 
speaker, 347; everything pre- 
pared with care and patience and 



426 



INDEX 



read aloud to a friend, 348; 
speeches and writings read aloud 
a second time, 349; letter describ- 
ing methods, reference to "my 
blundering way," 350; indepen- 
dence of ideas, 351 ; must assimi- 
late a suggestion in his own way, 
351 ; letter to author illustrating 
this tendency, 352; private letters 
composed with ease, 352 ; work 
required to answer letters, 353 ; 
dreaded dictation to stenographer, 
353 ; wrote even formal letters 
with his own hand, 354; forget- 
ting his own previous utterances 
on minor questions, 355 ; dis- 
claimed having any distinctive 
style, 356; conversation clean-cut 
and full of reminiscence, 357; 
could be as silent as Grant, 358 

Taft, William H., commemorative 
address on Cleveland, 99 

Tariff message of 1887, 103 

Taxation, Mr. Cleveland's interest 
in, as Governor, 65 

Thurman, Allen G., presented for 
Presidential nomination, 69; "Old 
Roman" banquet held in Colum- 
bus, O., in honor of, 132; Mr. 
Cleveland always recalled the 
evasions of his Wooster speech, 
290 

Tilden, Samuel J., Governor of 
New York, 56; political methods 
referred to, 139; Mr. Cleveland 
regards himself as a follower of, 
283 ; Mr. Cleveland student of 
his career and works, 288; he and 
Mr. Cleveland never met, 336; 
Mr. Cleveland's attitude towards, 
in Canal Ring fight, 337; watches 
rise of younger man, 2371 Daniel 
Manning as lieutenant, 338; Mr. 
Cleveland's letter of acceptance 
submitted to, 338; letter on silver 
coinage issued upon suggestion 
of, 339; anecdote of, 340; Mr. 
Cleveland's tribute to and esti- 
mate of, 341 ; pronounced Mr. 
Cleveland a leader, 388; esti- 
mate of Democratic difficulties, 
389 

Van Buren, Martin, Governor of 
New York, 56; first Governor 
elected President, 56 

Venezuela message, revelation to 



England, 191 ; Mr. Cleveland's 
satisfaction with his course, 195; 
how prepared and sent to Con- 
gress, 198; ex-Secretary Smith's 
opinion, 200 

Vetoes, Mr. Cleveland's, as Mayor 
of Buffalo, 46; as Governor of 
New York, 60; the Five-Cent 
Fare Bill, 61 ; vetoes of private 
military pension bills, also De- 
pendent Pension Bill, 99 

Victor Emmanuel, King, violent 
speech made by A. M. Kieley, 

85 

Vilas, William F., appointed Post- 
master-General in first Cabinet 
and later Secretary of the Inte- 
rior, 80 ; capacity for detail, 95 ; 
land policy of Interior Depart- 
ment, 96; Indian policy of In- 
terior Department, 96; attends 
conference at William C. Whit- 
ney's house, 156, n.; Mr. Cleve- 
land attracted to, on account of 
financial opinions, 291 ; letters 
from, found in house-cleaning 
process at 816 Madison Avenue, 
303 ; friendship with Mr. Cleve- 
land, 372; letter to Mr. Cleve- 
land on parting, 380 

"Viscaya," escape of, from New 
York Harbor, 403 

Waite, Morrison R., Chief Justice 
of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, death of, 93, 367 

Walpole, Sir Robert, saying at- 
tributed to, 364 

Warner, A, J., letter against free 
coinage addressed to, at instance 
of Samuel J. Tilden, 339 

Washington, George, Mr. Cleve- 
land's deep admiration for him, 
286 

Washington's Birthday, Mr. Cleve- 
land's address on, before students 
of Michigan State University, 

145 

Watterson, Henry, proposes name 
of Kentucky delegate for Tem- 
porary Chairman of the Conven- 
tion of 1892, 161 

Westinghouse, George, appointed 
member of the Equitable trust, 
226 

Wheeler, Everett P., Mr. Cleve- 
land's letter to, on his perplexity 
as President, 212; member New 



INDEX 



427 



York State Civil Service Reform 
Association, 252 

White House, preparation of Cam- 
paign lext-Book in. io(^); sclieme 
of, outlined with Colonel Lamont, 
107 

Whitney, William C, appointed 
Secretary of the Navy, 7S ; recon- 
struction of the navy, 88; con- 
tracts with Bethlehem Iron Com- 
pany for armor and gim steel, 
89; Mr. Cleveland's opinion of, 
90; anecdote illustrating his power 
of work and concentration. 01 ; 
furnishes credentials for author, 
109 ; renomination campaign meth- 
ods unknown to, in early day, 
139; advises agajnst policy of let- 
ter to E. Ellery Anderson, on 
free silver, 151 ; believed it un- 
necessary and fatal to Mr. Cleve- 
land's success, but aroused by 
the Anti-Snap movement, 152; 
supposed to have contributed pri- 
vately to Anti-Snap movement 
and pronounced for Mr. Cleveland, 
152; work well under way when 
he returned from Europe, 153; 
power of concentration upon 
work when interested, 154 ; con- 
ference at his house, June 9, 
1892, 156; presides over confer- 



ence at his own house, 156. n ; 
methods adopted in ChicnRo, 150; 
liberality in expenditure, itjj; 
anecdote of, ih},; li-ttcrs from. 
ff>und in houseclfaninR prnccs*, 
303; friendship with Mr. Cleve- 
land, 372; birthday greeting to 
tlir l.Tttcr. 37<j 

Wilson, William L., attends con- 
ference at William C. Whitney's 
house, 156, n. ; chosen Tempo- 
rary Chairman of Chicago Con- 
vention at Whitney Conference. 
157; defeated for Temporary 
Chairman of Chicago Conven- 
tion in National Committee, ifti ; 
Mr. Cleveland's desire to ap- 
point him assistant to the Presi- 
dent, 183; leadership in second 
Cleveland administration, 389 

Windham, Conn., Richard Valley 
Cleveland's first pastoral charge, 

17 
Wright. Silas, Governor of New 

York. 5(1 
Writing and speech, style in, 347 

Yale College, Richard Falley 

Clovclatid graduates from, 17 
Yeomans, Mrs. S. C, sister of 

Grovcr Cleveland, xv 






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